h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ahh dunno, but to bring it back to earth, shatteringly not profound, I wish someone could find me that elusive business art philly-hoss-soo-feee, so I can make loadsa lolly...

until then you'll have to take satisfaction in your unsullied integrity
good to have you back
nice break?

Yes, wonderful thanks

Lots of stuff has happened here it seems and lots of peeps have had lots to say...interesting reading...

Just trying to catch up and keep up!

My artist integrities...*hehehe*...I suppose *mutterings*

well until you make it big you can say "oh, I wouldn't want to compromise my artistic integrity like that"

The problem with discussing what art is or what the point of art is, is that the moment you come up with a definition, someone will come along and hand you something that is the exact opposite of what you said and undeniable art. Then again, maybe this statement in itself contains an idea of what art is: something that cannot be defined in words but can still be identified by the heart/mind/instinct. But that's bordering on more metaphysical than I want to go, so I'll stop there.
I tend to come at a lot of art from a theatrical standpoint, and thus I 1) like my art to contain a story or portion of one (i.e. you can see from the details that there is more going on than just what the painting/sculpture depicts), and 2) have a general feeling that the artist ought to be AWARE of his/her audience, even if he/she then decides to ignore their feelings and opinions completely. But I've also seen a lot of art that intrigues me mentally or reaches me emotionally without satisfying either of these conditions, so go figure.
One last thought about artistic liberty. I think it IS possible for the artist to limit his/her own liberty by setting up expectations for him/herself. However, I also find that in my own art, setting up some rules and conditions (somewhat arbitrary and specific to one piece I am working on) helps me tremendously to increase my creativity and raise the quality of my work. So complete artistic liberty is not always the ideal.

My friend in Galway (who is a poet and teaches creative writing to earn a crust) and I were talking about this and reached no very firm conclusions. We did decide that as to being relevant the artist had no duty to be so but if politics etc was important to them their work might suffer if they ignored it.