Not everyone is an artist and not everyone may feel some desire to create something after seeing the work of someone else, but I think that there is an interesting sort of language that can be developed from cataloging the art that you enjoy.

It is tricky to give an accurate description of what something is like, and it is even trickier to describe why you like it, but there is a particular feeling that accompanies art.

The internet has made it much easier to view art and find all sorts of different and amateur artists, usually at random. Websites like DeviantArt, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and others are not only popular, but use their tagging systems well to increase that randomness factor of finding something that you never knew you wanted.

The perfect example I can think of is George Wylesol. I saw his art one day on Tumblr and I was struck by its simplicity in rendering objects, and distorted, comic-book like color palette. He’s featured in the headlining picture and now I have an artist to follow and see how he develops through his career, just from chance.

It was around the time that I found Wylesol that I began thinking more about the pictures that I’ve seen and those that have stuck with me even months later. I tracked them down and a made a little list of the names or art movements that they were a part of. Looking at it now, I have artists on it from Edvard Munch to Pacific Northwest Native American art.

These are all different styles and eras, but as I have expanded the list, I’ve found it easier to describe or at least reference the kind of the art that for one reason or another speaks to me, and what does not.

No one has to follow in my footsteps here, looking at a variety of art I’m sure will yield the same result in a more sure sense of taste, but using the internet has its advantages. Google reverse image search is helpful for finding the source of anything random without a credit on it and the chance of seeing something interesting while scrolling through your Instagram feed is much higher than going anywhere to see a gallery that may have something.

Not to mention all of the new artists putting themselves out there.

A refined sense of aesthetics is the end goal here, and that way of finding and hunting after the information of artists will not only lead to a greater appreciation for their work, but also a more sure sense of why you like it in the first place.

I believe that there is a kind of art for everyone within every medium and more traditional mediums like painting and drawing feel too vaunted for an average viewer. There is a focus on what is influential in the discussion of art, when people have certain likes and dislikes. Seeing "Mona Lisa" may be interesting because it is so obsessed over, but it may speak to you less than something that may cross your path on social media.

Any good art will make you think about it at some later date, but that art is not always framed on a wall.