Is art limited to human beings?

[Danioover9000]

   I've watched an old video that Leo claims that only humans are capable of art, and not other species on the planet. I've got some questions:

   How sure are you that art is only a human invention? What evidence do you have supporting such a claim?

   If art is a human invention, why are some artists inspired by nature and other creatures rather than another thing?

   If art is limited to humans, then what explains an animal's ability to paint, like a human?

   If something else, like an animal, is capable of art, then is art really a human invention?

   What if there's a species bias in claiming ownership of an abstract field, like art?

   If a creature is capable of art, what does this mean for intelligence?

   

 

[PurpleTree]

I think humans taught these animals to draw etc. probably similarly to how dog learn tricks etc. or

do you think they really want to express themselves on a canvas?

 

 

I do think nature is the greatest artist though, like bee's and their hexagon structures, flowers or just a river flowing etc.

[Guest SirVladimir]

What you define as Art is, in fact, the very nature of Life exposing its beauty like an intimately naked fairy. Art is, in other words, transcendence, and it dances like a lady on a lake. I can stare for hours into paintings in galleries and be utterly grounded in the substanceless present moment. What you feel when the word Art is implied, really, is your ticket out of ego's headspace. Art is not a human invention, and it definitely is not limited to anything. Life is Art, and it comes from the brush of an ageless master. Do not even try to find a way around this.

[AlyK]

23 hours ago, PurpleTree said:

I think humans taught these animals to draw etc. probably similarly to how dog learn tricks etc. or

do you think they really want to express themselves on a canvas?

 

 

I do think nature is the greatest artist though, like bee's and their hexagon structures, flowers or just a river flowing etc.

And humans come into this world wanting to express themselves on a canvas? 

Art is expression of life. 

[Rilles]

Animals do tons of art. Just not the stuff you see in galleries. An ant colony is a beautiful intricate piece of art. Aurora Borealis is an example of Mother Nature doing art. To say only humans do art is very biased. Im sure Leo meant that in a very contextual way. 

Art in nature.

The V Formation of birds migrating.

The rings on a tree.

The patterns on a pinecone.

A spider web.

The Eye Of God Nebula

I could go on.

Edited November 18, 2020 by Rilles

[Danioover9000]

@PurpleTree

23 hours ago, PurpleTree said:

I think humans taught these animals to draw etc. probably similarly to how dog learn tricks etc. or

do you think they really want to express themselves on a canvas?

 

 

I do think nature is the greatest artist though, like bee's and their hexagon structures, flowers or just a river flowing etc.

   Does this mean that animals depend on human artistry? Or is the capability of art passed down, from evolution, and humans were inspired by nature first? If it's possible for nature to be artistic, like bee hive hexagonal structures, and the Fibonacci sequence of spiraling structures found in flowers and developing seeds, then what does this mean for human artistry?

[Danioover9000]

@SirVladimir

22 hours ago, SirVladimir said:

What you define as Art is, in fact, the very nature of Life exposing its beauty like an intimately naked fairy. Art is, in other words, transcendence, and it dances like a lady on a lake. I can stare for hours into paintings in galleries and be utterly grounded in the substanceless present moment. What you feel when the word Art is implied, really, is your ticket out of ego's headspace. Art is not a human invention, and it definitely is not limited to anything. Life is Art, and it comes from the brush of an ageless master. Do not even try to find a way around this.

   How is art from nature, and not human invention? How sure are you that some of those gallery paintings come from a human artist? Is philosophy not an art by itself? What makes art not limited, when art can be limited and fixed into a painting? If art did not come from humans, and is not limited to anything, including nature, then why is art now limited to life itself? 

[Guest SirVladimir]

@Danioover9000 Hehe. :-) The paintings in those galleries, in a relative sense, were of course drawn by human artists. But whether they were aware of it or unconscious, they were depicting something beyond themselves. When I write a short story, it doesn't really belong to me. It's the Universe expressing itself through me. And since I'm the Universe, the only possible signature is "by Life".

Your whole field of view is just one large canvas of spilled colors; Art, tbh. 

[tricksntraps]

Yes, I feel the same when I do something creative.

It always feels like something else is creating the piece of music or whatever is is that I'm trying to create. Something that always fascinated me and that I could never explain. Some power from somewhere?

[Codrina]

I can definitely say that art is not a human invention, but a human response to a calling from outside themselves. It's like you are shown a vision of something that does not exist and a voice says you can bring it into existence. So you sit down, take a brush and put colour. And as you paint, it evolves in front of you. It transforms, it reveals itself to you. A painting, in my experience, is a revelation. The end result is much more than the initial vision. It isn't even you that decides when it's finished. You just paint and paint. You take a step back, you look at it, a voice says paint a line there, put colour there, and you paint some more. You take another step back, you look at it and a voice says: 'It is done' and you look at it and marvel and feel deeply humbled and grateful. 

Like this painting. This vision was revealed to me during meditation. After about 15 hours of work, in three days, I took a break to have lunch. I returned to the easel and as soon as I took the brush in my hand, a voice said: 'That's it. It is done.' I looked at it and agreed. It was done. Anything else on it would've been in vain.