I will be the first to admit that I am not an artsy guy.  In fact, I have little appreciation for painting, scuplting, or theater.  I will admit that I enjoy dabbling in photography from time to time, as well as creating graphics in Photoshop.  Since photography is the closest I get to art, I was considering taking a photography class at college as a means to fulfill my arts requirement.  As I was reading through the course description, it dawned on me that art classes completely defeat the purpose of art.  The premise is simple.  Art classes train you to go about approaching art in a certain way.  Take photography for example.  The photography class stresses proven techniques, such as using a certain proportion of the photo with the subject.  This leads to the destruction of art in my opinion. 

So maybe that claim is a little over dramatic, but maybe not.  Thankfully most artists do not take art classes.  If they did, unique art would not exist.  To me, the beauty in art lies in taking something that no one has done before, and sending an astounding message.  The beauty of art lies in its uniqueness.  Think about why sunsets and mountains are appealing to people.  It is because the sight is rare to most of us.  We see the vivid colors of the sunset and we think to ourselves, “wow, where else on earth could these colors possibly exist together.”  With the mountains, we marvel at the shape, carved by thousands upon thousands of years of harsh environmental exposure.  If we saw mountains and sunsets everywhere, they would no longer be beautiful in our eyes.  They would no longer be unique.  The same concept applies to art.  One cannot be taught how to be successful in art.  To mimic styles that people have seen before would lead to art that was completely the same, if not in content, then in thoughtfulness and creativity. 

If you need a real world example, examine just about any successful artist.  Picasso became famous for his abstract style, one that was purely his.  The Beatles were world famous for their brand of rock and roll.  The list goes on and on.  However, if an artist were to come along and try to paint in abstract as Picasso, or to play rock and roll like the Beatles, their ideas may be good, but they will never step out of the shadow.

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