Who defines what art is?
The answer is no one. However, the people of TikTok definitely tried with artist Carolyn Mara, whose mop paintings garnered a lot of attention on the platform and sparked a massive debate on what, exactly, art is.
Meet Carolyn.
She’s a professional artist from Miami, Florida. And when I say professional, I mean she has the chops to back it up: she has a masters in fine art from The School of Visual Art, and 20 years of experience.
She often shares her art on social media.
She and her daughters show off all the fun projects and pieces they make together on her Instagram, where her 135k+ followers enjoy everything she makes.
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However, she’s gotten the most attention on TikTok.
Artists thrive on TikTok, where millions of people can consume bite-sized looks at the artistic process. That’s where Carolyn decided to start sharing her mop paintings, which quickly took off.
One of her TikToks went viral in a BIG way.
It garnered more than seventeen million views, sending Carolyn’s art into the greater TikTok sphere. Soon, over 30,000 comments flooded in, and debates sprung up about her technique.
The comments quickly turned hateful.
It got so bad that Carolyn had to turn comments off. She decided to document her experience with that negativity for Bored Panda , where she covered just how bad things got for her.
Some of the comments were vile.
She said the comments ranged in negativity, from “Literally anyone can do that ” to “If I saw you I would take a [expletive] on you to look like one of your paintings.”
Classy.
She said that she was fine with people having opinions.
“Everyone is entitled to their opinion about art, but when a person attacks the artist with derogatory remarks a line is crossed. As our fragile planet continues to come together to fight our current challenges, let us all be reminded of the importance of tolerance and respect.”
Art is whatever you want it to be.
“Mop painting is art, performance art is art, anything at all can be art. Being your authentic self should be praised, even while acknowledging that artistic styles can vary.”
She had one more thing to add:
“While some critics may dislike my art, they and you can do so constructively — without disrespecting it.”
She’s right, and I’m very glad that she said it. Also, for the record? Mop painting looks fun as hell!
h/t Bored Panda
