Sandy Maldonado

Philosophy 25
April 24, 2016
The aesthetic value of an object varies from person to person, while some may find
something to be art other might not. Many may focus on the functionalism of an object to
consider it art. Functionalism focuses on whether it fulfills social or cultural functions, or if it has
the function to bring upon a certain psychological state in a person, for example a certain
emotion like sadness. (Moore and Parker) Others will focus on the formation of the object rather
than its function, using formalism to see if something is aesthetically valuable. I will use an
object that I dont consider art, and will show how someone may the object as art by using
formalism.
The object I chose is a coffee mug. This mug is made of clay, and its a brown reddish color.
It is short and is round at the base. The cup is decorated with three big flowers, the flower in the
middle, farthest from the handle, has six petals painted with a yellow glaze and the middle of the
flower was painted with a green glaze. On each side of the yellow flower there is two flowers
that have 5 petals painted with a purple glaze, and the middle of both flowers was painted with a
yellow glaze. The two flowers met at the handle of the cup. The rim of the cup is painted with a
thin green glaze, and the inside was glazed with a clear glaze, so that the liquids wont seep
through the clay.
I know that many people can create things and call it art, but for me to consider something art
it should be something that either tells a story, tells something about the artist, be something that
not everyone can copy and is unique, or be something that I would consider beautiful and greatly

admire. For me art is mostly paintings and sculptures that dont look like they were just thrown
together by chance. For these reasons I am not a big fan of many contemporary artworks,
because I feel that many are too simple or incomprehensible.
For me, the clay mug isnt something I would consider art. The clay mug and the design on it
dont directly tell a story, or something about the person who created it. It isnt unique, it was
bought in Mexico and you can find many of these same type of mugs all over the country. It is
very ordinary and something I can use every day, instead of putting it on display. The mug isnt
something I can admire or something I would find beautiful. The decoration on the mug are very
simple and seem to be something that was painted without much care, you can see how the glaze
was carelessly added, the glaze is added past the outline of the flower and the glaze around the
rim is very thin in some places.
Although I wouldnt consider this coffee mug a piece of art, there are some people who could
consider it art, they can find how it is aesthetically valuable through formalism. Formalism
focuses more on how the work was created and the artistic expression it has. This coffee mug can
be considered a sculpture, because it was formed with clay to create a three-dimensional shape,
and the design could be considered a painting because it used brush and pigmented glazes, to
create it. The depression in the center of the cup is a concave created while it was being sculpted,
to give the shape of the cup. The handle creates a convex that also helps give the cup its threedimensional form. For the painting in the cup, you can see how the brighter colors, yellow and
purple, where used to contrast the dark colors, green and the red-brown color of the clay. The
flowers were given color through a clear glaze with some color pigment, so you can clearly see
the brush strokes used to create the outline of the flowers. The brush strokes and the way in how
the glaze was added unevenly gives the cup an artistic expression. There is also a contrast in the

texture, the clay feels rough while the parts covered in glaze feel smooth to the touch. Yellow is
the dominant color because it is the brightest color, because of this, yellow was used in the center
of the purple flowers and in the middle flowers petals, that way a persons gaze can be directed
from one flower to the next. The way the flowers are arranged also help balance the design in the
cup. Through this description, people who believe this cup is art will be able to show how it has a
special aesthetic property, or beauty, to it. (Moore and Parker) Just by looking at the cup people
can argue this has an aesthetic value based on the way it was formed, the texture, the colors, and
the overall composition of the design.
Through, these two points of views you can see how by applying aesthetic value
principles to an object we can conclude if it is or isnt aesthetically valuable. Formalism is a
great way to show how an object can be art by looking at it, and seeing what it is composed of
rather than thinking about the meaning behind it. (Moore and Parker) Through the use of
formalism, I was able to see how someone could consider the coffee mug as art.

Works Cited
Moore, Brooke Noel, and Richard Parker. Critical Thinking. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012.
Print.