Creative differences

In trying to define art, objectors expose its meaning

1. the power of performing certain actions esp. as required by experience, study, or observation

2. a branch of learning

3. an occupation or business requiring knowledge or skill

4. application of skill and taste to production according to aesthetic principles

5. a skillful plan or device

6. the craft of the artist

7. one of the fine arts

8. decorative or illustrative elements in printed matter as distinguished from the text or other parts printed from standard alphabetic types

These are Webster's Third New International Dictionary's valiant attempts at defining art. Ambiguous and circular, they do as good of a job as possible of translating into some sort of physical, concrete plane an idea that exists purely in the mind and in the soul. In other words, they are well-worded descriptions that ultimately say nothing and sometimes try to define the word with itself. And anyone who needs a denotation for it need look no further, for this is as close as it comes.

But the true meaning of art -- the spirit of expression and interpretation that lives within connotations all around us -- cannot be defined.

That, however, does not stop people from trying. It certainly did not stop the Penn State Catholic community and Father Leo Arnone from stepping forward and explaining to the rest of us that art is that which does not offend them.

Christine Enedy, a senior majoring in visual arts, expressed her view of women being oppressed in the church by channeling it into a sculpture for an art project. The sculpture depicted the Virgin Mary emerging from a bloody vagina. Clearly, this image can be disturbing to some people. For one thing, it is grotesque. For another, it appears to desecrate a sacred cornerstone of the Catholic religion.

By its own abstract nature, however, art is all things to all people. It is completely subject to personal interpretation. If a person is offended by what they see on the surface, they should transcend their stigmas and try to see it from the creator's point of view. When we ignorantly dismiss foreign ideas because they do not sit well with us, we become part of the very oppression Enedy was attempting to expose.

We cannot define art, but we can use art to define ideas that are too complex to put into words.

Enedy challenged the Penn State community to think, and it did not live up to the task. Instead, Father Arnone and other members of the Catholic community challenged her ideas by suppressing them, instead of countering them with ideas of their own, as they pushed her to remove the sculpture from its display behind the Palmer Museum of Art.

Opponents of Enedy's work replaced her display with displays of their own ignorance by throwing wild accusations regarding her intentions behind the work without ever consulting her about the origin of her ideas.

Enedy herself could have stood her ground and kept the sculpture up, but with so many people failing to look beyond the medium and interpret the message within, she didn't see much point.

Art, though it has no tangible definition, is a form of symbolizing some aspect of reality in a way that will draw it out of hiding and bring it to people's attention.

If Enedy was trying to depict oppression, then reality has definitely reared its head.