If I see one more video of someone painting clouds receive 1 million likes on TikTok, I might lose it. 

Since the second half of the 1900s, there has been a shift in what people choose to represent in their art. This started the cliche question of what art is exactly.

It seems to me artists love to throw the query out in the air, but they never want to hear the answer. Some things are not art. 

I have seen hatred of modern art galleries. Videos of people thinking they could recreate modern art paintings or articles criticizing artists are all over the internet, and they all want one thing: to revert the effects the World Wars had on art and go back to traditional styles. 

My issue is precisely this: I think we as a society need to draw a thicker line between what is art and what is simply drawing. 

I have gone to modern art galleries and heard that “art is anything that causes emotion” more times than I can count. To that, I only have to say that what causes emotion is the intention an artist puts in their project. 

The first object we looked at in my art history class was a bowl. We looked at the reason why a hand-painted bowl can be considered art, but the plate given at a restaurant, however pretty it may be, is nothing to be thought of twice. While the two are similar objects, and both are nice to look at, only one contains emotion and intention. 

This logic can be applied to anything. A sandwich turns into cuisine artisanry when one enters an experimental restaurant. A building becomes an artistic concept when the architect is bold enough to play with the limits of architecture. 

In the same way, a painting can be art or just a painting. 

Landscapes, for example, show no emotion or intention. While they are a great way to study light and see the painter’s ability with the brush, they do not transfer any emotion. The painter is saying nothing with a boat sailing amongst the waves.

Portraits can go in the same category. Having a minor in classical studies, I love it when a portrait can tell us anything about the time period or the person being painted. Still, the most emotion a portrait can have is stoicism.

Of course, there are portraits that show intention, such as the “Portrait of Madame X” by John Singer Sargent.

This painting, while done to capture the model’s beauty, implies something more about the lady who is posing. 

The suggestive pose, the strap off the shoulder, the piece was full of cheeky energy and the controversy that followed its completion demonstrated the rage of emotions this painting caused. 

In the past decades, Concept Art has taken all the attention of critics. From paintings to sculptures, the abstract nature of it makes for heated discussions over whether it is worthy of being called art. 

Here is where we turn our attention to the real issue. Social media is full of accounts that base their content on drawing.

The videos exclusively show either people coloring an already drawn portrait of famous actors. Don’t get me started on a sunset by the sea. 

Admittedly, more often than not they will be good drawings. The light reflected on the water and the foam all show the artist has good knowledge of painting. 

But when that is all they draw, when their account is landscapes over and over again, one wonders if it’s good because it’s the only thing they can draw. 

There is no emotion behind it, just repeated mindless motion looking for likes. 

Music, literature, dance, painting. Art is the greatest thing humans created — the pinnacle of human emotion and its nature. 

To see void paintings, lacking any creativity or intention, being put in the same category as real art pieces is simply upsetting. 

There are illustrations that are just drawings, and that is ok. I might even indulge in liking someone’s post of them coloring fluffy clouds from time to time, but the relaxing sound of their pencil doesn’t make this art.

The world nowadays is full of images. True art stands out for its depth and makes us stop from our routine doom scrolling.

Art isn’t just about pretty pictures but about exploring what it means to be human, and I’m waiting for the day I can look at a painting and feel like a human again.  

James Orozco can be reached at [email protected].