The "You aren't an [excellent] artist; what do you know?" argument doesn't fly. Most of us don't want only "excellent artists" to look at and enjoy our work. If you ask someone to look at something, you are stuck with dealing with their response. That doesn't mean everybody's opinion is equal, but it does mean listening to all your critics with a humble and open mind. If a beer-guzzling cracker looks at a picture of mine and says, "You got the Pearl label all wrong, egghead!" he may be right, and if he is, I screwed up.

I like reading intelligent comments about anyone's work; I learn from them. I think the thing I find the least useful in galleries is the wordful vote, positive or negative. "Awesome, Dude!" is no more interesting than "This sucks!" I'd much prefer that those comments came in the form of ratings, myself. Good criticism is tempered by an understanding of the person's expertise and values. If a Poser technician tells me the Mat Room settings he thinks will make my dragon's scales look more like the crocodile skin I ineptly attempted, I'm glad to hear it. If she also tells me that dragons don't look like that, I shrug. Most of the time, the real technicians are not exceptional artists, I've found. If an artist whose work I admire comments on my composition or the emotional effect or the colors and shadows, I listen, even though many times real artists are not the most coherent and articulate explainers. If a body builder or physical therapist tells me I got the muscles wrong, I listen

A couple of people have hit the nail on the head, regarding what makes "Poser art" bad. A good deal of the bad is in the user's failure to master the tools. We've all suffered from the shy offer of "art" by untrained amateurs who are not prepared for criticism. (For me it's "poetry," meaning ethereal doggerel that doesn't even have to rhyme, thank Walt.) They just want you to coo over their baby, and like most babies, it looks like a fat midget or a shaved monkey. And unlike babies, it isn't going to grow up to be Michelle Pfeiffer or Lance Armstrong. Good Poser art can come from a "primitive" approach (in the Grandma Moses sense), but it's more likely to result from study and practice with the guidance of someone more knowledgeable if not more "talented." Poser by its very nature encourages people to "make art." This is why I occasionally describe it to people as the ultimate bathroom wall pencil. You don't need talent, or even much money, or even a motive more interesting than jacking off, to use it.