Conventional Art is very, well, conventional:

That’s a painting of a bowl of fruit.

It looks like a bowl of fruit.

The artist intended it to look like a bowl of fruit.

Everybody who sees it can tell that it’s (say it with me now) a bowl of fruit.

Contemporary Art is different:

That could be a bowl of fruit – or it could be various snakes of different colors who’ve just devoured a pack of rats, then curled up together in this bowl, their skins distended into vaguely fruit-like shapes by the currently-being-digested lumps.

Or maybe it’s a horse.

Not that these are the only two categories of art in the world. I accept that. But in my mind there’s a pretty clear distinction. And my premise isn’t limited to painting. Poetry, music, sculpture, photography, even architecture fall into this concept. I’ll use word “artists” to indicate the purveyors of all such endeavors as I fill you in on

My Opinion Regarding Contemporary Art:

If the artist has to explain what he or she was thinking, feeling, or wanting to say, the piece doesn’t work.

If the artist is trying to convey a particular thought or feeling, but people who view the painting, sculpture, whatever, don’t think or feel that, the piece doesn’t work.

I may be perfectly happy with a creation, based on my interpretation of it, but that may not match what the artist wanted me to get from it. And if I’m not getting the intended message, (you know where I’m going with this)

the

     piece

           doesn’t

                    work.

But maybe the artist doesn’t have a “message” for that piece. Maybe it magically appeared in the artist’s head and he or she just had to get it out. That’s fabulous! Now I don’t have to figure out anything! I can just take pleasure in the artwork with no worries. No “deeper meanings” no “mysterious incantations.” Just art, to be enjoyed and appreciated.

That’s my kind of art.

Create as much of that as you like.

I may even buy some…

Jaela Lynndon is a fair-skinned, blue-eyed, natural blonde Trike Vixen living in the Sonoran Desert – specifically Scottsdale, Arizona – and Red Sands regular. Her books can be purchased Here.