At the riusk of raising an unpopular opinion... I've said for a long time that 95% of what we generate isnt art. It's craft. It's sometimes very good craft, but it doesnt have that "ah-hah!" spark that Art with a capital A can cause. A lot of our stuff (and I'm just as guilty as the next guy, folks) is put together without a lot of thought about composition, form, colour, visual weight -- let alone the deeper issues of meaning. It's just a pretty girl in front of a tree, or a naked Amazonian warrioress in a temple with a sword. Now there are those who can take those creaky old Poser warhorses and do something truly spectacular with them, in such a way that they go beyond just a render -- but let's be honest here, that doesnt happen too often. The store promo images that DM does for their buildings and props have more intent put into them than what we do in turn., I'm not saying any of this is bad, just that we should maintain a certain sense of perspective about the issue. CGI may have levelled the playing field by making Art relatively easy... but it doesnt necessary make Art. (... unless, of course, one has Wardrobe Wizard, which does indeed have a Make Art button built in, but that's another issue. :) ) And before someone throws out the hoary question, "Well, fine, Mister Smarty Pants, what is Art?", I'll say it right now: I dont know. I react to it on a visceral level, not a rational one. There's more truth to that adage about knowing it when we see it than we probably care to admit.

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