The Boundary of Painting, Art, and Humanity

By stripping down everything unnecessary from my paintings, I’m asking the question, “What is painting?” , “Where does the ‘magic’ happen and when does it stop happening?” By doing so, I’m also prodding the question, “What makes us human?”.  

Is there a difference between a human and a machine? Can a process lead to more than the result of the process? Are humans just biological machines? When asked, almost all people answer “No”. So what is the difference? Where is it located? Is there a ‘soul’ that rises to the clouds when we die? If humans are machines, then machines are humans. And we must ascribe a conscience, a soul, to machines and all objects in general. 

The ability of humans to produce art is often, directly or indirectly, presented as proof of us being more than just biological machines. Of having a soul. If something that is on the edge of being art can become art, doesn’t it mean that we can inject a soul into something that has no soul? If a soulful thing can be produced by purely mechanical means, can a soul be produced in a machine? 

Of course, these questions go back to Duchamp and before him.