I got a door politely shut in my face today. It hurt a little (a lot). But I am assuming that I was trying to go into the wrong door, and that I just need to turn around, get my bearings, and try another door.
Art is such a subjective entity. Is any painting valuable? Invaluable? Or unvaluable? Why are some paintings worth millions while other paintings, which may be subjectively either better or worse, worth northing? Or even more millions? Are any of them worth more than a handful of tulip bulbs? Especially today, when anything can be produced or reproduced? Why even use paint? It's very messy. Do I need to find the right audience? Or feel content that my art is something I (alone) like to look at?
I have seen shovels hanging in galleries (art galleries, not tool galleries). There are many highly prized works out there boldly expressing one note - excellent art if you like colors, but don't like it when the colors form a shape.
I guess there's art for everyone. And nobody can please everyone.
If you google-image the phrase "Is this art," you get some food for thought, including some rather disturbing images. If you google-image the phrase "modern art," you get some of those dumb blank canvases, but you also get a flood of beauty, so much it makes me feel puny and unimaginative in comparison.
A sample screenshot from the Google Image search "Modern Art"
If you google-image the phrase "Young Woman with Unicorn," you get this picture of a Raphael painting from 1506, showing a girl holding a teeny unicorn like it's a teacup poodle. There is no point to be made. I just wanted you to see it.
Young Woman with a Unicorn, Raphael, 1506
Well, this took a turn. I appear to have tried to answer the question, "What is Art," when I started trying to answer the question, "Is what I make art, and is it worth anything?" I can answer that it IS art, but only because I say it is. To the second question, I can only answer no until proven wrong. In the meantime, here's a picture of an albino nutria, holding a tarot card, in front of a famous Columbia Gorge petroglyph entitled Tsagaglalal (She Who Watches).
The Oracle
Thanks for reading, friends.