There is the saying that 'life imitates art', which is true, but even truer is the fact that our lives are daily intertwined with art. As I tell students when I do school visits, an artist is not just someone who paints pictures. An artist designs the clothes you wear, the packaging your food comes in, the furniture you sit on, the car or bus you ride to school or work in. An artist designs the  [more]books and magazines you read, the sets, costumes and the title sequences of the television shows and movies you watch, the covers of the cd you listen to and the music player you listen to song downloads on.

Fine art is a very important facet of civilization and culture, but art goes far beyond paintings, drawings and sculpture. Art is what adds visual appeal and interest and emotional engagement to the everyday things in our lives. There was an old phrase, commercial art, that used to mean art that was done for a business purpose. And crafts were the things that were not 'fine art' and were not 'commercial art'. But they all use the same means to achieve the same result. Color, pattern, shape and form are manipulated to create an aesthetic or emotional reaction. It's not even about beauty, although beauty can be a part of it- it's about engaging your emotional interest.

Cultures throughout history are defined and differentiated not just by their ideology or influence and power, but also by art and the unique design of the everyday and the mundane- the clothing, the pots & jugs, the furniture, the tools. Art defines us and connects us to our past, the threads of design running back through time. Art was being put on stone and on skin long before words. The first writing was pictographic, pictures communicating meaning... art.

As you go through your daily life, take note of the colors and patterns and shapes of the things around you. Think about the artistic decisions that were made to make things look the way they do- it's seldom arbitrary or accidental. An artist is communicating to you.