Chachi There's a common theme in your comments: "Maybe I just have a real passion for seeing the truly original and unusual and unique." "I thought the whole point of this was to create original artwork" "and I try to stay original as possible " "I just want to push people to think creatively" "I just want artists to try something a little more different than ..." -------------- Well, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you've got it all wrong, on a fundamental level you've missed the point entirely. You apparently believe that originality in its own right makes something art, that unique and different for its own sake is better? Replace the word 'nudity' with 'originality' in your statement and we see the problem. "It seems that [originality] is an easy way out to call something "art"" Originality does not make it art. It's a very common misconception, but it's not correct. All too often it makes it pretentious and self-concious and forced. Above all, it makes it empty. When your intention is to produce something 'different' it is unlikely that the result will be good work, unless it's by some stroke of luck. So what makes it art? Expression. Putting some of yourself into it. Making it personal. Heart. Finding out what moves you and somehow bringing it into your work. We all browse through through galleries hoping to see something we really, really like, an image that doesn't just impress with it's technical mastery, but something that really strikes a chord inside us on some emotional level. Such works are rare, but when you see one, you know it, no question. And when you see one, grab it. Start a collection of images that really move you, study them and try to see what it is about them that makes them special to you, what makes them different from all the others you skipped over in the gallery. Try to get some of its special quality into your own work. Yes, copy if it helps you. Acknowledge the original artist if you're worried about plagiarism, this is a stepping stone, you'll soon move beyond it. This is when you start to learn about yourself as an artist, learn what moves you, what excites you, learn how to identify it in other artists work, learn how to express it in your work. The irony is that when you are working from your heart, producing really personal work that only you could have made, it WILL BE unique. But it'll be unique in a good way, because it's work that comes from who you are as an artist and you are unique as a person. The uniqueness will be a spin-off, a side-effect, not the driving motivation behind the work. So forget the empty "amaze your friends with something different" crap. It doesn't make art, any more than nekkid titties make art. And remember that there are lots of poser artists who are content to just make pretty pictures of nude vicky. That's okay. Just as there are lots of amateur watercolorists who are content to paint the same dreary winebottle/apple/bunch of daffodils/rowing-boat whatever. If they're happy doing what they do, let 'em be. ;o)