Very nice Karen.

I think it's easy to forget that when you're a newbie, comments and critiques are especially important.  I think the problem is that some of the newer artists are expecting feedback from the galleries rather than using the forums to their advantage.  Also, it's important to not keep every image you've ever posted in your gallery.  Treat it as a porfolio and weed out some of the areas where the learning curve was a bit rougher.  Depending upon the time of day, your location, and what other artists are posting, you must accept that its a crap shoot as far as getting your image viewed or commented on.

As far as content and the nudity discussion goes, I''ll admit that I've been a little frustrated.  There's nothing wrong with doing a nudie pin-up or even having a large portion of nudie pin-ups in your gallery.  The problem is that the way to grow as an artist is to really try new subject matter and use the techniques presented in the forums.  And my frustration is that we've reached a saturation point where the nudity removes attention from the works that might be truly original.  I've noticed that a lot more of the pin-ups are not getting as many views as in the past.  Perhaps this should serve as a clue to move on to another genre.