Lastly, I abhore and denounce Camille Paglia as an enemy of women and feminism. Don’t ask. The grudge is old-tyme, dating back to the post-modern era . . . nor does it have anything to do with Madonna’s role in Paglia’s arguments.

In the case of Madonna, I think maybe she pulled the trigger and then La Paglia showed up with a Sharpie & drew a circle around the pattern and said, wallah!! Within is art.

I’m all for finding art in new places but I just wonder how far the concept can stretch. If, with a series of decent argument and a decent amount of sticking to one’s guns, we can, via a shotgun method, convince at least a few people that something is art, and therefore that the creator is an artist, then where is the limit? And what do we say about a piece of art without an artist? Found art is cool but isn’t it generally the person finding and therefore placing the object in the role of art that makes it a piece of art?

So, is it Madonna that is the artist or Paglia? Certainly Madonna did the work but if she wouldn’t have been recognized as an artist without Paglia (and perhaps didn’t think of her work in terms of high art) then isn’t it really Paglia, the critic, who is the artist?

Do I have a point? If I do it must be “Be your own critic.”

I’m pulling for Jay.

I’ve always thought about art as a shotgun; the artist aims for a target (well, sometimes), and hopefully comes close to it. But there’s spray all over the place, and it might “hit” something that comes close to pornography, or a celebration of violence, or kitsch, or whatever.

That being said, if you’re getting repeated questions or concerns about how people perceive your work, perhaps it needs to be re-evaluated. I’m thinking of it in terms of Project Runway. If you’re an Austin Scarlett, you know what you’re doing, so forget what other people say. But if you’re like, a Wendy, and someone keeps telling you, you’re missing the point here, or you keep getting the same feedback, perhaps a re-evaluation is in order.

It’s the job of the artist (or, ideally, a supportive critic) to say, Here is what the target was, and assess whether it was hit. I think Madonna would NOT be considered a feminist icon today without the efforts of writers like Camille Paglia, who argue that she is announcing and controlling her sexuality, and not simply being grist for the male self-gratification mill.

Likewise, if you have a strong idea & you think you’ve hit it, argue for it. I got flak for using too much negative space in something I did recently, but I WANT MORE negative space in my work (my New Year’s Resolutions are ridiculous). I argued with the two people who said, this sucks, and just stuck to my guns. They didn’t like it, but I hit the target I was aiming for, and could say–this is influenced by the work of Jeff Kleinsmith, who is a whiz at negative space, and I wanted to do a little thing for him. So I was fine with it.

I really like some of the pictures here, makes me want to fix my camera, which I broke…again.

Your response to critics makes sense to me, maybe thats just the way I am too.