Good questions. I had included singing and poetry because the artist is using something else - words and music rather than him or her self. I hadn't thought about dancing though, and I do consider that artistic. Maybe it would have been better to say something like, "an intentional attempt to convey meaning through aesthetics" but that's probably too abstract. I'll have to think about that. Hopefully the importance of the distinction between quality vs. "liking it" made sense though. That often gets blurred together when people are talking about good/bad art. As far as the "self-expression" part, in my mind expressing things about something that affects you is still expressing yourself. You would be expressing your views, thoughts, feelings, impressions on whatever it was.

Before they made me they broke the mold!
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