Before you read: This is straight out of my journal. It's kind of funny, but made to get you to think. Agree, disagree.. don't really care. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Many artists debate about portraits- whether or not they're art or not. Where is their place anyway? On one hand they can take a great deal of time and technique to pull off, but a photorealistic portrait has do have a little more doesn't it? Maybe a little edge to separate it from the rest?

Lets step back first.. lets examine what art is before we draw any conclusions. So, what is rt.. another question which seems to have no answer.

So, what is art? Lets list some things.
1) A form of expression------ VAGUE
2) Beauty---------------------VAGUE
3) Creativity-----------------VAGUE
4) a creation using various media that takes some kind of skill-- VAGUE

these are just some of the answers you hear when people pathetically attempt to define art. So what did you say art was? chances are however you answered the question, it will only raise more questions. For example. What is considered a form of expression? Are you telling me that not so awesome video called "Two Girls One Cup" is a form of expression (if you don't know what it is.. you probably don't want to know. Well, i'm thinking it's not so much expression, but i'll let you be the judge. How about this little saying-- "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". If this is true, then anything can be beautiful... therefor anything can be art. Not buying that either.

See, this is what makes are so damn confusing and difficult. What the hell is art?? Of course we can always use the art elements and priciples to judge and critique art, but once again... They are only guidlines.

Moving on... (back to the portraits)
So why not just take a stupid photograph? If you are going to waste at least 10 hours of your life making a stupid drawing of House or one of those characters from Twilight, why not just take a picture? I mean, honestly, have we not seen enough drawings of celebrities? Why do we waste our time drawing these people?? We must have some sick fetish. I'm as guilty as you. Shit... wait. We want fame, that's right. We want people to recognize our drawings. Afterall, that is the point of realism, right? We draw things so people can say... "damn, that looks just like him". Well, no shit. It was coppied from a photo. It's kind of supposed to.

So why do we draw these people- Another important question
I don't care if you like fall out boy or final fantasy. It's just not a good enough reason to draw these people/characters. Just because pete wentz is hot.. or final fantasy dude is a bad ass isn't a good enough reason to waste countless hours of your life copying pictures of them.

So back to the infamous question. Why draw photorealism. Well, for me, it's a sense of accomplishment. Seeing something how it appears and duplicating it. Yeah, it takes some skill, but it's pretty straight forward... Draw what is already there. If i was an exclusive portrait artist i guess i would consider them art, but wouldn't consider myself an artist. I think an artist is a new special breed. They bend the boundaries of what a pencil can do. They are always looking for new ways to create.

For example-- Chuck Close- Great portrait artist. ya know why? Unique approach. Ok, ready for a reality check. Here it comes... Looking at portraits is boring as shit. All we do is compare them to what we already know and our preconceived image of what a person is supposed to look like. I guess that's the good thing about abstract artists. They create from their mind. yeah, people actually do that? Weird huh?

Yeah, so abstract art may pretty much suck all of the time and we hate it, but maybe we should at least admire the creative process right?

So, Wassily Kandinsky.. a rather famous abstract artist. His works are filled with color, shapes, and stuff. That allows us not to focus on any kind of image. We are forced to look at the composition, contrast, line, light, repetition. You know, art stuff? Oh shit.. wait. We don't know about any of these things!!! That's why we hate abstract art. It's not our fault though, we can't admire anything we don't have knowledge of. If we understood these things maybe abstract art wouldn't suck so bad... or maybe it would. Who knows?

Long story short, We know more about celebs that art. That's why we draw them. I'm blaming the media. I mean, people love realism because it gives them a chance to talk about something they have no idea about. My mom can pick out a portrait that is good. Do you know what she would say if i gave her something abstract? If I had to guess.. I would probably say "cool, but what the hell is this shit".

Who cares what it is?!? It is Art. Art doesn't have to be recognizable. Just take it for what it is, if you don't like it- move on. Make something you like. Stop making art for other people and make it for yourself.