Nothing in the world is like art. Everything in a room has a use . for something. Nothing is use-free. Except art. Art is unique in that way. I would also put art objects in that same category. We call things on the shelf knick knacks but someone designed them as art objects at some point so they are art too.
The urge to create is so great that artist make things mostly for the sheer joy of it. It is like a compulsion to make it is greater than the what are we going to do with this now reality.
I have these little chihuahua salt shakers. They are so charming that I probably would have bought them even if they did not have salt and pepper in their heads. If they were just little things to put on the shelf.. someone made them originally, Are they any different from what I do? I was looking at them this morning. Even if they were made in a mold in Mexico, someone designed them. They speak to me. I content that they are art and they are the same as a painting. A spark is a spark.
Anything made for the sheer joy and sheer compulsion of creating something that nobody needs is art in my book.
Examine things today and think of the person who was compelled to make the first one. . Maybe the person who designed the first one owned chihuahuas and loved them so much that they had had had to make a little figurine. I don’t think art is snooty. I think art is what you must do or you will explode.
I wish I could meet the person who made my chihuahua salt and pepper shakers. I bet I would find a soul mate.