Art means what?

When I saw the Take A Word challenge this week I thought it would be easy to do, but it's not proved to be the case.  What does art mean to me....
Without telling you my life story or rambling on for days, all I can tell you is that 'art' in some form or other has been an incredibly important part of my life, always.
There are two major milestones in my artistic endeavours, the first is below:

Acrylic on Canvas - Symbolism

This is a painting I completed in 2003 and marked a change from small almost introverted pieces to large, displayed pieces.  This piece is the largest I have ever done it's 100cm x 78cm and it hangs in my dining room.
The second milestone was when I started this blog and actually shared my art.
I would love to say there is massive meaning behind the piece but in truth, there isn't.  I cant even remember where the idea or ideas came from. This is the first time I didn't use a ruler or masking tape on a painting with my aim being to create something organic and primal.
I can't begin to describe what art is to me, so I will let my piece explain it :)

Freedom!

For most of my life I have done various crafts and artistic things but, as a business professional, i have always seen this part of my life as trivial and not important. Until very recently I hid my little secret from everyone, so that I would be taken seriously as a professional. Then one day I overheard a routine chat at the coffee machine between a group of male colleagues: went to golf, wonderful swing, lost a ball, played footie with the lads, went to the pub and played darts. I don't know why this conversation was different to hundreds I have heard before, but it was. My 'play' with various types of media is no diffrent to any other kind of sports play. At that moment I realised my artistic passions made me a more complete person not less of a professional one. On with the show......