I view realism / hyper-realism as a useful tool with which to gently crowbar my surrealist / romanticist / fantastical / downright nonsensical notions into the mind's eye of the viewer...

...I guess the theory is that recognition of a worldly optical phenomenon will trigger recognition... or at least some measure of acceptance... of whatever embedded metaphysical / transformational precepts, archetypes, metaphors, allegories, or just (and more commonly) what random abstract silliness has happened to escape through my own mind's eye, from the depths of the id.

Poser / ZBrush et al are my equivalent to the Krellian "Plastic Educator", as Morbius named it, in Forbidden Planet.

Is it art? Well, perhaps the real art is in living life, really? Out of the many and varied by-products of that, what is, and isn't art, is likely in the eye / mind of the beholder...

It's definitely much easier to recognise, and agree on what consitutes, great craftsmanship, than it is to universally determine what makes good art, perhaps?

He he ;)