Before I post this, I'd like to apologize for my obnoxious CSS. I plan on replacing it someday when I have the time.

Ahem.

Yeah, yeah. We all hate each other.

I recently noticed a journal entry complaining about all the crappy pictures that make it to the popular page on DA. I won't mention who wrote it, because I don't want to start some sort of a war here, and they're not alone anyway. It's all over- this sucks, that sucks, he sucks, she sucks. Get over it.

Art is defined by my lovely friend dictionary.com as "the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance."

The wise *mjranum wrote: "Know what you like and be honest with yourself what it is. Your work will be infinitely more personal, powerful, and effective if it's based on things that you are interested in, or that you enjoy, or that torment you. Connect your art to yourself and you can look anyone in the eye and say 'if you don't like it, f*ck you!' If you're not sure why you're doing what you're doing, you will never be able to be fearless."

I bring these to your attention to make one point. Art doesn't have to be hard or complicated or the most original thing you've ever seen emerge from one person's imagination. I acknowledge that sometimes I feel a lot less respect for artists who do things the easy way (like me) when I see incredible artists that spend weeks and weeks on a single piece, perfecting every detail until they can bring themselves to display it to the public domain. But what really matters is that my art is something that connects to me, and connects to who I am. There may be a million photomanipulators out there whose idea of an amazing accomplishment is just one more pretty gothic girl standing in the wind looking over a stormy sea. But you know what? Just because I don't identify with that kind of art doesn't mean nobody else does. All that really matters is that the artist is ending up with a visual result they like. And if others like it too, more power to them.

Art doesn't have to be incredibly complicated or difficult to be good, and I would thank you to remember that. One of the fundamental rules of creativity is that there are no rules, no structures to be followed and nothing is forbidden, and the moment that we forget that is the moment we truly stop being artists.