According to the Oxford Languages, the definition of art is:

‘the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power’

Also:

‘the various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, literature, and dance’

Let’s just think about that for a second. If you think a little outside of the box, the expression of creative skill and imagination can cover a lot of things. Typically, when I used to think of art, I thought of the types of things such as painting, drawing, clay work, and so on.

However, I have since expanded my view of the kinds of arts there are. For example, last year, a crew showed up in our back yard to put in a swimming pool. Fine, dig a hole, put it in. But, that is far from what I saw while watching them work. There was a rhythm to their work, it was precise, yet very fluid. What started as a grassy, unlevel backyard, ended up being a very grounded, flowing oasis.

I sat out there day by day, simply watching. When I told them they were making art, they laughed. Maybe their definition of art only included the painting and drawing type stuff as well. Fair enough, I suppose. In seven days, they had completely transformed our space. During that week, I tossed out the words “pool art” many times and that is exactly what it was.

Which leads me to my husband. He’s got a million talents. He can hop on a bulldozer or excavator, take an idea out of his head, and turn a field into his imagined landscape. It is really something to watch. He is also gifted with a saw.

Over Thanksgiving we worked on remodeling our bathrooms. This!!!! This is why I declared my husband, the artist! That man can take some roughed up walls and make a masterpiece out of them with some boards, tin, glue, and a saw. I am in total awe. I can make art out of things, but not things like that!

We aren’t quite finished yet, but I’ll show you what I’m talking about.

It’s pretty amazing when someone can self express their own ideas and get the piece to show up exactly as they imagined. What’s even more astonishing, is when someone can take another’s idea and recreate it how that person wanted it.

This is exactly how I envisioned our bathrooms. I told him what I wanted and he did it. It may not fall into the idea of the traditional definitions of what art is, but to me, being able to convey beauty and imagination through varied mediums, whether those ideas are your own or someone else’s, is part of what art is all about.

Thank you for reading. Hope your day is amazing and wonderful!

Jessica