Recently there was a thread posted about getting comments and feedback in a couple different forums regarding the galleries and such. I sorta decided, ok, I'll start giving contructive feedback on different pictures if the artist expresses an interest in recieving some. And, I have to confess, I've been rather gallery shy for a long while. As hard as I try, there are some things about the gallery system and it's history that still sorta rankle under my surface, so I tend to view them with a jaundiced and prejudicial eye (towards the manner in which the popularity contest is run). Since I've also taken part in another artists site (acid music) which has a bit of a popularity system going to it, I can understand fully the issues that go along with the gallery system and how it works. This time, however, I did my best to go through them and look at the pictures pretty closely. And ran smack dab into a problem that picked the hairs up on my arms. That problem is the wholesale ignoring of the categories. And the single most horrifically destroyed category of them all is the fantasy category. Now, right about now there is a bunch of folks who are already typing replies, lol. Ok -- here's the gist of this one: The categories are there to be used. Pin-ups are pin-ups. Women and men posed provocatively for the predominantly cheesecake look are not fantasy, even if they are in the latest halloween fantasy outfit that exposes the bulk of flesh. I like pin ups, mind you. They are a difficult to master art form, and yes, they are definitely a form of fantasy -- won't argue that point. But there is a reason that the Pin-up gallery is separate from the fantasy gallery. One is for pin-ups, one is for pictures which fit a more literary form of fantasy -- not a more literal definition. The same issue lies within the Horror and the sci-fi gallery. So what's up here? I mean, what's the deal? Are we incapable of putting pics in the right category? Do we need better definitions? I'm even willing to earn the ire of everyone by offering myself up for sacrifice on the rock of actually bothering to sort the damn galleries (although what in God's name made me just do that I'll never understand...). It's an area we are all passionate about, our art, and while we all want the best exposure for it, what's the thoughts of everyone...

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)