Nude Models Pics and the Argument for Art

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I added some new nude pics for my members the other night that are more on the artistic side and it had me thinking about the differences between porn and art. I don't generally try to create "art". That sounds pretentious and indulgent to my working class belief system. I do appreciate art. Imagining a world without it is rather depressing, a world where every single thing has to have a purpose or a function. But when I think about what how I spend my time, I tend to think I should be doing things that are productive. And I don't place creating art in that category. Creating art would be a luxury for me, a passion that's reserved for my free time, a guilty pleasure. Getting Things Done would definitely beat out making art in my priority list.

I should note that I do think some of my photos have artful qualities to them, even if they're primarily shot for the purpose of titillating the viewer. I don't necessarily think that porn or photos designed to arouse can't be art. I don't think nude models need to be pouting or shot in black and white or laying in symmetrical poses to classify as art either.

Art, like all forms of beauty, should be defined at a personal level. For me, that might be a picture that makes me smile or a kitschy collage of images that keeps drawing my eye back to it over and over again.

I'd love to write (and ramble) about this subject some more, but I think I'm going to dig through my crafty supplies instead. Just the smell of oily pastels, the feel of soft bristles of a paintbrush makes my heart sing. A blank sketchbook that I can fill with my imagination? Without ever putting pen to paper? Dreamy.