geordief

Sure it is not spideation? The eyes ,you say....ah yes a bit familiar....cute ,yes and kind of ,welcoming. I think I'll take a cl..................

I thought it looked like a crab

Turn the last one downside up and you have "Escapologist".(oh is it not a frog?)

If the universe was to begin and end in endless cycles (which is not anything of a consensus as far as I know) then would you have the chicken and egg question** as to which came first -or was more consequential? Would the question be as to whether you could as well say that the material universe emerged from a "mental" universe? God knows there would be no way to find an answer other than whether it could be disproved. **(I think I understand that the actual chicken /egg question is not paradoxical and that -well I can't remember the answer but was it "the egg"?)

Would that be an indication that most people are active on other kinds of sites where different expectations of civility (and levels of moderation) apply? So ,when they first post here they forget to wipe their feet on the mat.. Unless science forums naturally attract people who want to "show up the experts"

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8erpgy727jo Funny ha ha (Edinburgh Festival one liner winners) eg Comedian Mark Simmons was voted the winner with his gag: "I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship but I bottled it.”

I think it may have been me who used the description first in this thread. But it I meant that it vindicates the value we place in our own existence That it can be worth doing on its own account. Not an original thought in the slightest as the expression "art for art's sake" surrounds us all and is oart of the common currency.

We are living through times of great and easy satirism.(such a shame Kelsey Grammer decided to satirise himself)

Yes ,it wouldn't have been hard.He has gone down in my estimation as an expert conman. Victim of his own bs? Something crawled up his ear?

I was very surprised he didn't get much of a bump(was it cancelled out very quickly when Biden called it off?) Bet Trump was put out by that after all that ear merchandising to complement the pampers couture.

I don't think I said (or implied?)you did.I don't always address exactly what an interlocutor has specifically said but may say what comes to my mind to emphasize what seemed important to me. Argumentation does not feel always a virtue to me (especially if ,like me you are not very good at it) I am trying to understand a subject better rather than to show others are wrong I tend to admire artists but am aware that ,as people they are no better and perhaps worse than those without the skill. For example,I feel that Dylan sold out (dropped out?) but realise his abilities are such that my feelings count for very little.

A lot of people claim that it is "wrong" to close your mind to all forms of musical expression. That is a debate on its own account If an artist has lived a life that is reprehensible (eg arguably MJ) they will be censored out of the airways regardless of the quality of the music itself. Personally ,once an artist has died I lose nearly all interest in their work (am not looking forward to the possibly imminent demise of Bob Dylan.... he's not ill but old age is its own illness)

Doesn't technical ability increase the "vocabulary" of the artist and thereby the work? And ,as is often mentioned you can be fluent in any number of languages and have nothing worth saying in any. So ,as a corollary you can be highly technically skilled and also have a worthwhile expression ** which would make the object more intrinsically valuable than if the opposite were true. The "business " of art ,whilst it is in the OP might be a red herring as to whether an artwork can have genuine worth. ** not sure how I could define that ,though as a self professed "philistine".

I have a friend who travels around the country from one poetry competition to another. She quite often wins a monetary prize.Some value there

John Fahey claimed he changed his preferences very suddenly https://www.johnfahey.com/Blood.htm "Where I was brought up was very prejudiced towards Negroes," Fahey explains. "I was taught to hate and fear them. I didn't like black music very much, I wouldn't even listen to it." Two years later, Fahey heard the record that turned his music and life around: Blind Willie Johnson's "Praise God I'm Satisfied". "[Blues connoisseur] Dick Spottswood and I were sat in a store where they were selling up old 78s," he remembers. "They weren't catalogued or anything, they were just lying around. We were going through them and I was not picking up any records by Negroes for myself because all I wanted was bluegrass. I found several black records and gave them to Spottswood. Then we went over to this other collector's house and he put on the Blind Willie Johnson. I started to feel nauseated so I made him take it off, but it kept going through my head so I had to hear it again. When he played it the second time I started to cry, it was suddenly very beautiful. It was some kind of hysterical conversion experience where in fact I had liked that kind of music all the time, but didn't want to. So, I allowed myself to like it." Is that what you meant by "personal preferences"?

Can they be wrong?Do you need to understand a work of art before you give an opinion that can be considerered "considered"? Suppose we segregate all those people who can be considered knowledgeable enough that their opinion is valuable and we (as we surely will,I imagine) find a spectrum of responses to the piece... Can we collate those varied reactions and come to something of a consensus amonst the cohort of some intrinsic value(s) of the piece? Not to say that the opinion of the relatively ignorant is not also important but that its importance can be overstated. For years I thought Hendix wanted to "kiss this guy".I still liked the song...

But not all value is monetary. Suppose you happen to be an artist and you are questioning the value of what you do on a daily basis (reflecting on you life choices and actions).. well your work as an artist would be one of those choices or activities that you might wish to evaluate on its own merits. Could that be done or would personal judgements of that kind be kind of "flip of the coin"? (Whether or not it was appreciated,perhaps?) What about Zelensky's refusal of the offer of an American helicopter out of Kiev?

What about intrinsic worth? Can that be evaluated in any way? Purely subjective,aside from technical ability? I Any examples? Edith Piaf?

Would there be an evolutionary advantage to "art creators"? It is very common for artists to say that they picked up an instrument "to get laid" John Fahey ,for one.

Who does understand the art? Anyway the masked figure was probably posing for inclusion in a latter montage where they run the risk of ridicule by anyone who knows them. How does Banksy manage to do all those murals more or less incognito? Was it perhaps a self portrait this time? To the OP art works as a mirror into the creator and viewer.How effective I can't say - or whether what is being reflected necessarily has intrinsic worth.(everything is faceted)

There used to be gods for everything ,at least in Greek and Roman religion. Why not an extra God of the Vacuum ? Could give it a name....Miele or Henry?

No ,most of the people in our road were second homers from London (and Southend) It was Mersea and not really a pier .Just a jetty to moor small boats and go crabbing .Think it was part of the River Colne and we had the best known oyster population until the winter of 63 wiped them out.

Edit.This site is loading incredibly slowly this past while.Maybe that is the problem?

I normally use an android phone but there is a Samsung Tablet in the house and I am now using it (with Chrome) I don't see a problem this end (there are ads af the top of the page) Have you tried both landscape and portrait? I find that sometimes one works better than the other.

We had a neighbour who owned a gift shop in Southend in the 60s .We always thought of him as a millionaire (presumably because he told us) They were the nicest people and used to walk down to the pier every morning to jump into the sea ,even in '63 when he broke the ice when even the sea water froze. He had heart problems and his doctor eventually told him to stop the practice. When the next door house to both of us was demolished by the council as a health risk he paid me and his son piece rates to gather the old bricks which my father used to build a new wall beween the houses and all around our own all around - (his nickname was "Myrddin the wall" and he used to ferry extra bricks from across the river in our sailboat. His son was 6 foot 10 and once made the mistake of diving off the pier into shallow water ,damaging his neck(nothing like what happened to poor Hanif Kureishi thankfully)