I agree that it's pretentious for somebody to refer to his/her own work as art.  leave it to  art critics to go through the formal process of comparing it to relevant examples, for better or worse.  I know everybody hates art critics, but it's a dirty job and they are trained to apply aesthetic standards in what should be an impartial way.

that's the difference between us and cgsociety - we have no artistic standards and they've got standards we don't understand, which is apparently enough of a problem to cause these arguments and ad hominem attacks every year.