Quote - Penguinisto, what you say has a lot of merit to it, and is also well stated. But you also allow for the possibilities of great successes too!

One must always allow for success.

Downtown here in PDX, we have a bit of a secret artistic weapon - real Monet paintings - including a few that I think you would find to be instantly recognizeable. 

In his day, every painter and his dog fought to make paintings as eye-bleedingly real as possible. Monet decided to give them a great big artisitc middle finger. His little technique took off. 

Even better example from a similar time: Paul Gauguin. They all had a good hard laugh at his use of garish color to express tropical scenery and people - few folks bothered to buy a painting from him. Now try buying one without having a titanic bank account balance to back up the purchase...

Monet's tool was artificial near-sightedness. Gauguin had a brain that decided to use color to express a story and shove your eyes' attention where he wants it to go, even if the colors weren't true to life.

Here's the funny part - they all used pretty much the same tools. 

Quote - So I was I think hurt by anyone denigrating anyone's creative efforts, because art in all forms is important to society and life in general. And I se sometimes critiques of new artists everywhere that discourages them from trying, learning or sharing. And that saddens me.  

nihil novi sub sole

I have some bad news for you... if you think what you see today is vicious, you ought to have a gander at what art critics back in 18th and 19th century France were capable of. Those ancient mofos started their day by eating a slice of toast, buttered on both sides with the souls of a promising new artist or two. 

It is, after all, a vicious little profession dominated by vicious little people, no? 

In case you're curious, the latin phrase means: "There is nothing new under the sun". It came out of the Bible, specifically Ecclesiastes 1:9. Basically, my wee paragraph says the same thing. :)

/P