I instantly felt ashamed because of course music is art. I can’t believe that my first thought was that it wasn’t. I’ve played the cello for eight years of my life, and I feel nearly the same connection to classical music as I do to art, so why do I not automatically think of it on the same level?

Sometimes I forget that studio art isn’t always the first thing that people think of when they hear the word “art.” There is so much more to the art world than that. Poems, music, paintings, etc. There is so much to be said about those things created out of thin air and a person’s thoughts. But if that’s the case, what isn’t art?

Liberal arts – areas of study (such as history, language, and literature) that are intended to give you general knowledge rather than to develop specific skills needed for a profession.

Studio art – the making of visual art (such as paintings, drawings or sculptures), contrasted to the study of art history.

Fine art – an activity requiring great skill or accomplishment.

All of these definitions are so entirely broad. The Liberal Arts College at the University of Iowa is lumped together with sciences, so does that mean that science is art? Math? Engineering? Based on the definition of liberal arts, it looks like it all would, depending on how it’s taught/learned. Fine art could mean anything that is done well that requires skill.

Combine all of these definitions together and you get the definition that makes sense: anything that you can try.

But this is different than I’ve ever thought about it before. I made an entire post (kind of) about this and specified that I don’t like thinking about art as something defined or set in stone. Mostly because I don’t think that something so vast should be defined, but also because if I think about it too much it freaks me out. I always say that I love what I do, my art, my paintings, my drawings, my photos, the thought process behind it all, and everything that goes along with it. What if I could replace the words “paintings”, “drawings,” and “photos,” with any words pertaining to any profession and have it mean the same thing? What if all that we ever do in our lives is art?

No. For some reason, I don’t believe that.

Because, like I’ve said, I have such a hard time believing that everything is art. I think that art is a case by case classification, that we can’t have a checklist of rules that helps us define something so intricate. I think that there’s a thin line, and that line is passion. That is something that I think most people can accept.

Say a civil engineer is trying to design a building that won’t fall during an earthquake. This engineer really cares about this because their hometown was just struck with a series of earthquakes that destroyed almost everything. This person finally achieves what they’ve been working on and decades down the line sees that building finally constructed. That would be their work of art. After putting so much passion into anything, it’s hard not to see it that way.

An anthropology grad student travels to India to do some fieldwork. They could have chosen to study sexuality or gender roles or kinship, it doesn’t matter. After they finally live with the people they’ve read about and have become fascinated with, they put together the notes they took, the interviews they conducted, all of the other research they’ve done and they create their thesis. That would be their art. They put passion, thought, and love into what they did.

A composer writes a symphony about someone or something they love. An artist creates a great way to get over their anxiety. A mathematician discovers some kind of cool math thing that they worked for years to discover. Someday someone could cure cancer. All of these things are works of art. People put their heart into them and they mean something. Someone, somewhere, at some point in time, was passionate about something and made something happen because of it, and that is what I think art should be. Not a series of vaguely defined terms.

Things that we hate, as I’ve already kind of touched upon, are art. Things that we love are art. Things that we ourselves are not passionate about are art, but as long as someone was at some point passionate about them they are. This is something that I am going to struggle with remembering, but if you’re anything like me you will look at this as another beautiful part of this gigantic world of art. There is now just more to marvel at, wonder about, and discuss. I am excited to see things this way.

The Looking Glass is a bimonthly column that aims to educate, analyze, and share different aspects and forms of art. It will focus on sharing and analyzing different artists, works of art, exhibitions, etc. Along with this, the column will ask questions and point out interesting controversies. Art is a constantly flowing and vast part of our society and our culture that we are all submerged in daily, and discussion about the medium is a critical part of a full understanding and open mind.

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Public Space One looked completely different than it did the one other time I’d ever been there (for a Paperback Rhino show.) There were no rows of chairs, instead a maze of fold-out tables, each with a completely different style of art on top of them. There was a crowd that was large enough to make me feel a little uncomfortable, but small enough that once you found a place to stand, you wouldn’t be bothered. Around thirty artists were there, and I was satisfied with almost all of their work.

First, I stopped at the Work Press & Publication table, which was right next to the door.  According to the publication’s website, Work Press & Publication was created in 2013 “to provide a physical and virtual genesis, storehouse, and marketplace for artistic publications and images.” I really liked the logo of Work Press & Publications, since the type seems to have a vintage feel to it. In fact, most of the type that was used for covers of zines, newspapers, or books that were at the table drew me in because they looked like something that you could see at a circus or on an advertisement  in the 30’s or 40’s. They all had that kind of simple typography with simple colors, especially yellow and red. I liked the look of the work that was set out. Something I found interesting was the Work Press & Publications  Sunday Morning Comics, a small-run newsprint publication that collects comics from artists around the world. Collaboration is essential for any art-based company and the Comics seem like a great way to provide a source of community for illustrators and comic artists.

Next was Jonathan Sims, the creator of a comic book called Floating Bunnyhead. On the back of his business cards, Sims printed a fun description of the comic book: Floating Bunnyhead is an awesome comic book. I mean, we got Floating Bunnyhead (the disembodied rabbit noggin), Armless Bear (the massively magenta ursine amputee), Slicey (the piping hot piece of pizza), and Raptoro (the Saturday morning cartoon pinata-sauras), and they all are saving the world in exciting encounters with villains, jerks, robots, buttheads, aliens, ancient evils, and even more buttheads! I think that Jonathan Sims had the most overt creativity in the building, and the style of his artwork showed it. Some of it was crude, but that was the point. He also has an Instagram, which is a great way to keep tabs on what an artist is doing (and sometimes he posts pictures of a stunning adorable black cat).

After I snaked around a few more rows of tables, I saw a man sketching a really cool piece that looked like a city street. He turned out to be Will Santino and based on the work that was laid out on his table he was a versatile artist. He had a stack of children’s books named My Week about a young boy’s summer that he wrote and illustrated. I would recommend My Week for any kid that wants to have a gigantic imagination. The different pages of the book each had their own style but are still clearly illustrated by the same artist. There were also a variety of prints that looked like they were all different mediums, from paintings to digital to drawings and sketches. The versatility of Will Santino was really interesting.

The next artist that I saw was probably my personal favorite of the artists at the expo. Brady Wulf had his entire table full of tiny sketches and drawings, none of them more than a few inches across. Most sketches were only black ink on paper, but a few of them had some color. There were a few stacks of an (as Wulf describes on his Tumblr page) “comic/art/future propaganda pamphlet.” One big painting was set in the middle of the small drawings. There was also a small sign on the front edge of the table that said Wulf would attempt to draw anything someone were to ask for and would only ask one dollar for it. I really like that he was willing to draw whatever a person wanted, and was confident enough to offer. Being able to think quickly and sketch something on command is something that I admire, especially when that artist has their own distinct style. Wulf’s cartoony, yet somehow-realistic style was really interesting to me. I will definitely keep and eye on his work.

As I neared the end of the table maze, I talked to an artist named Kate McDonough. She has a very simple illustration style, which I like sometimes. She had a lot of work that revolved around self-confidence and self-love, and I think that is very important.When I talked to her as I was taking photos of her illustrations, she told me that she draws a lot of inspiration from social anxiety, and trying to make the awkward things in life seem cute and funny. She also has a Tumblr, where she posts photos of her art and answers questions that people send in for her. I feel like her drawing style is one that is popular, and could easily be found on a Tumblr feed, but nonetheless is still a style that I enjoy looking at when I don’t want to look at something too busy or intense.

The last artist that I talked to wasn’t someone I was expecting to see at all, but I recognized her immediately. Her name is Megan Hindman, and she just happened to be the only person that I talked to in my last African-American Art History class from last semester. It was really refreshing to see her, not only because her artwork is awesome, but also because it made my dream of ending up with my work at one of these things ten times more real. Someone who was in one of my required art courses is in a show that I’m attending. The event instantly became ten times more personal and more realistic. It validated my hopes of one day becoming an artist.

Overall, I think this event rejuvenated my passion for what I do.  It also made me extremely jealous of people who had money in their bank accounts, because the art was so cheap (and so amazing) but I am perpetually broke. There were so many things for sale: drawings, paintings, buttons, stickers, cards, prints, etc. It was amazing to see people be successful with exactly what I want to do in the future, even more so because art majors are continuously told that what they’re doing will never bring them success. Some may say that the basement of a student center isn’t “success,” but if these artists had this kind of effect on me, I would call them successful in a heartbeat. I hope that Mission Creek makes this event annual and that there can be more events like this in Iowa City more often. I think that it fits in perfectly with Iowa City’s perfectly artistic culture.

To see more work from the 30+ artists that attended ICE CREAM, see most of their websites here.

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