I was actually thinking about this recently, because I was trying to distinguish the terms “craft” and “art” from each other, on the basis that craft resulted in useful objects and art in an expression of an artist’s creativity. Then I remembered that one of the key words when talking about Ancient Greek theater and art was “mimesis”, so basically copying from life, which is not very creative at all; from there I thought of all the old and famous portraits you see in museums, which were essentially the photographs of their time; in other words, they weren’t meant to be creative, but realistic. And yet nobody would argue that they aren’t art! So I gave up trying to find an answer xD This article is an outstanding read, even for those not interested in Pokémon, and it clarified a lot of things for me. One question I still have is about commissioned art: if you have no intention to exalt anything in this scenario, and you were handed a fat wad of cash and asked to portray something specific to the point where your only contribution you is your technical skills, and you did it—how does it fit into Chris’ definition of art? Is it art because someone’s vision was still involved in the decision-making? Does it matter that it wasn’t the artist’s? If it doesn’t, would the commissioner also be considered an artist, having been responsible for the creation of content in the work?
Chris:
Hmm. Tricky.
Y’know, I don’t think the person hired to produce the work would be able to do it without injecting at least a little of his or her own self into it – because, no matter what, it’s going to be that person’s interpretation of what the commissioner asked for. No-one’s ever going to come up with a work of art that’s exactly what someone else had in mind.
I guess to an extent it depends upon the degree of direction involved in producing the work. If someone leaves a comment on your Deviant Art page requesting “a drawing of Arcanine” (for instance) then a) you’ve got a lot of room for interpretation and b) it’s likely that this person wants something in your style anyway. If, on the other hand, you have a more complex give-and-take sort of process, with the commissioner constantly reviewing the work in progress, directing the illustrator (“the background should be lighter, and I want there to be a tree over there, and have one paw lifted off the ground, like so,” and so on) then I think at some point you do have to start calling it a collaborative work.
Pokémaniacal 