The universality of art

When I was like 8, I raised my hand to say that Math is a form of art and the teacher correct me for about 5 different times. "No, we're talking about art", he clarified it to make sure that I was not mistakening the question. Even my classmates tried to restated the question back to me, "Name a form of art". Until now, I still hold that answer to be true. Math and art is so intertwinned to me that I can't say that Math is not a form of art.

Why

To answer this question, I usually compared the artist and the mathematician. Frequently, the artist started out by replicating something "pretty", "beautiful", "visual applealing". Most of the time, the artist does not come to art beacause they want to express themselves. They came to art because they want to recreate that appealing visual or sensastion that they saw or felt. This happens when you want to recreate that delicious chicken fajitas from the bus trucks, or grow you own little flower by seeing that garden in the park across the street. We all started as rip-offs. Similar to mathematician, we are always taught with the main algebra foundations in the beginning first, which mainly involve memorizations and practices. Eventually , we get to face harder and more complex algebra problems. Then, we needed to delve deeper into the math fundamentals to ask more question and sometimes try to invent the math ourselves. This is how the creative act in math starts to emerge. However, in contrast with art, to get to the "creative" mode in math, it takes much more endevour in mastering the foundations and practices. I am not saying that doing math requires more efforts than art. It is just simply that mathematic has a more rigorous structure than art. It is much harder to break rules in mathematics in comparison to other conventional art forms like painting or making music. Thus, in order to be "creative" and break the mold in math, you'll need to have a strong enough bricks to break the glasses. If you try to break the glass too early without a strong grasp. The whole thing may collapse.

What

I know this kinda of abstracted thinking can be inscrutible for many people but it seems like the best way for me to visualize the similarities and differences between math and art. Going back to why am I even comparing art with math. It's just simply a great way for me to see the world. Without a clear distinction between concepts, it's much easier to create connections among different things together. Gradually, a new connections between concept A to concept B is not just merely linking 2 distinc terms together. It is now finding an universal abstractions. For example, the concept of complimentary in color theory and math actually means the same thing. They are not 2 concepts in art and math that are linked together. It is just an universal abstraction of the things that are totally divert from each other and both don't have any common ground.

Thank you art

Initially, I wrote this mini essay as a form of appreciation for art since it helps me connect with other people via music and gratitude for beauty. But as you can see, when I let my keyboard just flow with whatever is in my mind. If the mind wants to talk about the universal relevancy of arts, I should just let it be. Again, this could be a form of intuition that my mind have when talking about art in general. Thank you.