On Greeting a Stranger on the Street...

'no... art is not art'

Wow. A rant. Haven't had one of these in ages. Haven't felt the need for one.

Okay, so I go to this amusing little whiteboard/chat thing. I found it the other day and went through all the trouble of getting a password for it. I do a couple amusing doodles with some people a few nights ago, and then check out the gallery. I see that they have some fucking great artists at this site. I of course think "why the fuck would somebody waste this sort of talent on a whiteboard?" But I am impressed.

So I go there tonight, and there are a ton of people in there. I see that one guy has been working on a fucking amazing anime figure for quite a while, and it's very impressive. I see that another guy is also doing one, so I do the typical "HAY GUYS! I'm using the internet!" thing I do when i go to places like this, and I start drawing something amusing. Break up the monotony, right? It's a dinosaur yelling at a stick figure about wanting a divorce, and the stick figure crying.

So then some guy in the chat tells me to stop. He says I shouldn't waste pixels when someone like [insert badass-artist name here] is drawing stuff like he is. So I just go off on him. Yeah, I was kind of being a dick. I really didn't give a fuck, and I was just screwing around on his whiteboard for fun. But the guy tells me to stop wasting pixels? I mean, even though I knew i was capable of much more than my crappy little dinosaur, where does he get off saying that? Say the dinosaur was the pinnacle of my artistic ability? How much of an asshole is he then?

So then I just go off on him. I start talking about how all art has artistic merit, no matter how much time is spent on it. I tell him that he's discriminating against people without wacom tablets, he tries to counter with "well, [other artist] can do amazing things with just a mouse!" and i tell him that that's amazing, but I can't. And i say, "art is art, no matter how much time is spent on it." He counters by saying that that's rediculous, "no... art is not art." Wow, fucktard. You win. He goes on to say that art is a technical skill.

So of course I bitch him out about how art is beauty and imagination, and some guy randomly spouts up and tells me to stop with the textbook talk. I felt like telling him to fuck off right then. I bitch at the guy asking him what right he has to judge what is art and what isn't, if he's the final say on whether something is art or not, and he's like "i'm done with this conversation," but seconds later chimes in with "wait, one last thing.. you were PWNED!" or something equally moronic.

I mean, honestly. I was a bit over the top with my "beauty and imagination" bullshit, but the intent is still there. Something doesn't need to be art in the traditional sense to have value or merit. This fucking asshole thinks that art is something you can lear. Well you know what buddy? While you're drawing generic anime characters, I'm creating something original and imaginative, be it impressive or not. It's more creative than anything you'll put out.

So really what I'm trying to say here is... FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE.