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What is art? Who decides?

I have always been one to question “what is art?” and wondered who really gets to decide.

Famous Flickrite Thomas Hawk posed that question on his blog today. He has posted two images, one is a painting in a well known art museum, the other was found on a building in the street. He is taking votes and will reveal the answer tomorrow, but I encourage everyone to examine their position on the topic and chime in.

Personally I think that art can only be declared by the creator and what his or her (or I guess Elephant as well now) intention was behind it. If something is created to express a feeling, emotion or message then it clearly is art. However if the piece was done solely to capture reality, well unless the reality delivers a message or feeling, it may not be art. Sometimes the message or emotion is only perceived by the artist. I feel strongly that it is only graffiti anyway when the canvas is someone else’s property.

I wouldn’t want either on my wall, but I think the bottom one (blue) is the graffiti. There are distinct shapes that I see in it resembling the remnants of a “graffiti” like typography.