What is art?

I've been awake for about 2 hours now, thinking more on my collage. I played some more with some of the images in there. I feel like I want to deconstruct each small piece until it's barely recognizable from the original. Simplify so much it becomes something else entirely. What could I discover about reconstructing a relatively common shape. The star in torn paper or fabric. The outline, the interior. How do I mark the line to create interior vs exterior - with pen, stitching, crayon? I'm concerned about this because I wonder: What story can a line tell? Will it show a tentative nature or unabashed pretense? What makes a star into art? Is that the key that will unlock my art?