What makes art "ART"?

     Lately the subject has been coming in conversations up in my daily life, "What is art?" I have to tell you, it's got me thinking. I've heard tales of cats and men painting with pee, people using elephant dung, performance artists of all sort, and shallow "pop-art" pieces.
     To me, art is a lot of things and covers many bases. It isn't just painting, and sculpting! People make art for all different reasons, to relax, to make money, to vent emotions, to make statements, to persuade people, to break monotony, to 'stick it to the man', to make the world a little more beautiful, and sometimes just to see if they can!
     When I start to consider all the different reasons it seems like it becomes even HARDER to decide what constitutes art. Me and a friend were talking about the Andy Warhol "Piss Paintings" where he literally peed on canvas that were primed with metallic ground. There is a lot of debate up to this day whether or not this counts as art, I mean, ITS ANDY WARHOL for God sake! OF COURSE ITS ART! Then again, WHY was he doing these things? Some sources say its experimental. Maybe so, and maybe he figured, if it happens to sell then so-be-it!
     At the same time Jason Mercier is catching flak for making celebrity portraits out of everyday objects. But he has spent up to a YEAR making some of them, whereas Warhol's piss paintings could have only taken a matter of minutes.
     When it comes down to it I believe it's pretentious to decide if someone ELSES work counts as art or just "craft." If someone pours themself into something, and spends that much time on it, if it holds that much meaning then it MUST be art! It doesn't make a difference whether it is Michaelangelo's David, or gimmicky pop art. What I WILL say is that there are different levels of art.
     High art is what we think of when we think of "famous artists." Monet, Rembrandt, van Gogh, Raphael. These days it is a little more difficult to determine though, with so many different ways to make art! To me high art is the traditional mediums. Form sculpting, lifelike painting, abstract painting that still makes a clear image, art that the MASSES can identify with, that takes an incredible level of skill, a detailed eye, uses color to evoke emotion from the viewer.
     Low art is a little more difficult to define. Anytime you get into classifying someone's feelings are going to be hurt, but in my opinion at the end of the day if you are making that art for the love of the game, and out of your heart it really shouldn't matter THAT much. Low art to me stems more from the motivation, and the technique than the finished product. People making "art" experimentally, or just to be weird, or different, for "shock value" is going to fall in the low art category. Lets revisit these "Piss Paintings" I mentioned. These to me would fall under low art. They were experimental, crude, don't SEEM to be making any sort of big statement, and just kind of seem like a shocking artist being a shocking artist. Now, I love some of Warhols work, but he put out so many different things, that they were hit and miss!
     Someone should never be offended that their art be labeled as high or low, at the end of the day I believe true artists make art MAINLY for themselves, considering everyone else's responses second! With all these evaluations I've made I hope we never lose sight of that, because at the end of the day art is ever changing, and with it, these definitions. Technology is changing, we have new mediums to display our creations on. What isn't considered art or "high art" today, may be considered a classic tomorrow! With that in mind, let nothing hold you back, go out there and CREATE ART!
   

Concentric, geometric, and parallel respectively