Is Art Without Meaning Decoration?

Does every piece of art have to have a deep, personal meaning? I think that every piece of art that is created is very personal to the artist. For example, places like Wine and Design give the artist a rubric and examples, but every painting turns out different. Every artist has different shades and strokes of their brush creating original paintings. I think that these subconscious actions provide meaning. This meaning may not convey the artist deep emotions and troubles or the pure joy they are feeling, but the fact that every single piece of art is specifically different and unique from any other piece of art created gives it meaning. I also think that meaning can come from the pride one would feel in the art they made. Like the mural in the article, the person who painted that was probably really proud of it. Even though it is a decoration, it has meaning because someone put their time, effort, and a little piece of their heart. So I think that art is art. Decoration is also art because there is always the personal touch that every different person has to add. The picture attached is a piece I painted. I didn't have any specific reason to paint this, other than I like sunsets. But I'm very proud of it and it makes me happy that I could make something this beautiful. It is hanging in my living room as decoration, but every time I see it, I feel proud, so I think every piece of art has some meaning.

Elements of Art

I chose to use value as my element. At first, I wanted to use charcoal, but after exploring more options, I found it easier to get the values I wanted from colored pencils. I wanted to use colored pencils because I like to have the paper saturated with color instead of using the paper to show values. Using colored pencils allowed me to use different colors to show values. It started with the hair. The colors I used, black, purple, blue, and pink, made me think of a galaxy. That idea of space gave me the inspiration for an alien. Also, I really liked the colors and values I could get from the green.