Class 1: What is art?

I can tell already that this class is going to push me to think in a new way. It is going to challenge me to create something completely original and to question the norm. And frankly, I'm pretty excited.

We were first asked to question what is art?

Well, to first tackle this question I thought it would be interesting to first see what the dictionary definition says. And from dictionary.com this is what I got...

art

¹    [ahrt]  Show IPA

noun

1.

the quality, production, expression, or realm, according toaesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

Could this definition be more vague? Does this mean anything beautiful or appealing can be automatically categorized as art? And how do you determine whether something qualifies as having 'more than ordinary significance'? To me that sounds like ANYTHING that isn't completely normal (which I believe could be pretty much anything) could be considered art! But, if you look to Andy Warhol, nothing we say or do is considered original and we get all our ideas from somewhere so that also could mean that NOTHING is considered art. There are two complete opposite sides of the spectrum so...how exactly do we decide what goes into the art category or not? 

What we discussed in class that helped me out a lot when asking these questions was defining art depending on the intentions of the person/artist and the context of the piece.  

I have learned that you can't really put a strict definition on what art is because the concept of art is completely subjective. 

This question is one that can be answered by many but will never be agreed upon by all.