Art for art’s sake? Not so much. Want to be paid? Then there had better be a good story behind it.  Or you’re famous.  Or you’re dead.

Artistry is everywhere we look… in everything we touch. Look at your desk right now.  Find something with no art.

You can’t.  Even paper clips have shape, color, and light.

But is a paper clip for its own sake? No. It clips paper. But it is no less artistic.

In 2014, art for art’s sake is aesthetic dogma meant to encourage artists to focus on their own thoughts, as though purity of thought is equivalent to purity of meaning – and, therefore, audiences are irrelevant to art.

Quasi-utopian Codswallop.

Whether commissions are contracted or in the open market, successful art requires patronage in the form of a sponsor, buyer, or audience.