*Art is whatever I say it is.

So there.*

:)

That, in a sense, is fact.

Think about it: no matter what medium someone uses, if a person can "analyze" it and come up with "what the artist is conveying", it is art, whether you like it or not.

I can sculpt Michelangelo's David out of elephant dump and put it on exhibit. Someone (usually some aristrocrat snob) can manueveur their specs on the bridge of their nose and go, "yes yes... truly a master of human form, capturing the beauty of the renaissance, yet displaying that this world is full of filth and debauchery..." I just now made $120K.

BUT... when it comes to art created by digital means, the ridicule comes mainly from within the CG community, not society. People who love to be entertained and amused (and don't have the 'talent') love what is being created, no matter how ugly you do something (ie: South Park). CG creators, however, writhe in disgust. And this ridicule is usually which program was used. I think that is so pathetic. Do you think Da Vinci and Michelangelo had coneption fits of what horse hair should be used to consider a piece art?

Here are a few replies made to Katherine Howard's (Curious Labs) post at CGTalk (forgive me for continuing to bring them up... they have excellent renders and helpful tutes for other proggies, etc... but many of the people are elitist) of the upcoming release of Poser 6. This shows not only how brutal CG'rs can be, but also how scary it can be when venturing out to post your pieces up at other communities (there are a few combative defenders for Poser, but they, like myself, tend to not come out of the woodwork until this very moment such as someone being rude to a rep from Curious Labs). And pay very close attention to the last one:

Lol to funny  
 
I was going to write something sarcastic about that horribly written post but then i decided against it.  
 
Er, hi.  
I do believe that you have posted this on the wronge site. The correct site is http://www.rendorosity.com. Here you shall find all manner of 3d Pr0nsky and other assorted 3d clip art....  
 
But for some strange reason it hurts me more to look at a bad Poser image, than a bad pencil image.  
 
The only thing that troubles me about poser, is that i can spot creations done from it, miles away. I'm not bragging about it, many artists can do the same, and its not a matter of sharp eye, its just an obvious reality.  
99% of Poser users, only care about doing something fast and effordless. They don't care about being unique in their art. And thats the problem. Poser leads you into aquiring a false perspective about creation and art. Its just a tool like all other tools, but it takes you so far with a push of a button, it gives you the illusion you are instantly an artist, while you are missing some foundational knowledge about human form.  
Bash all you want the artists that do it the hard way (or narrowminded way) as you say. In this stoneage process of building characters from scratch, you learn so much, and have so much fun, its just hard to explain to a hardcore Poser user.  
Thats just my humble opinion, feel free to correct me.