What is art? What makes a good artist?

State

A snapshot of the current environment is called state. Fundamentally, it is composed of atoms arranged in an ordered/disordered fashion at a given space-time. Each passing moment gives rise to a new state.

What are you thinking right now?

Whatever you’re thinking as of this moment corresponds to a state of your brain. So you are basically, the cumulative state of your brain since your birth. This can (almost) never be identical to another person, because we all have unique experiences in a given space-time. So, each one of us is unique. That is our identity.

Some states are extraordinary, most are not. For example, following incidents created an extraordinary state:

17,000 years ago, a Neanderthal saw a bull
Buddha being born in Lumbini in 5th century BC
Napoleon leading his army to cross the Alps in 1800

Connecting the dots of past extraordinary events helps us understand history and extrapolate more state. But how do we find out about extraordinary events?

Art

Art is the channel through which transfer of state takes place from one person to another.

How do we know about the aforementioned extraordinary events? We know them because of:

Cave paintings (source) - Tells us the state of relationship between Neanderthal and bulls
Edicts of Ashoka (source) - Tells us the state of when and where Buddha was born
Jacques-Louis David’s paintings (source) - Tells us the state of what Napolean looked like, and his clothes

All forms of art, be it music, dance, painting, sculpture, poem, drama, design, folklore, or even a simple conversation are a method to communicate state. This communication can happen over space and across time.

By this classification, all humans are artists (since all of us communicate).

So what makes a good artist?

A good artist is one, who for given a state, knows the most effective way to transfer it. So, he must be able to

precisely identify his audience,
determine the best channel (music, poem, sketch, etc.), and
put the least amount of effort to transfer that state

e.g. If I’m unable to communicate my understanding of this topic (state) to you in the least amount of words (channel), then I’m not a good artist. This applies, given that I believe I know the kind of people who will read this article (audience).

A good artist must first identify the audience. Only then will he be able to figure out the best channel. One channe...

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