Delusions of grandeur, and a question

Don’tcha just love it when the self-appointed arbiters of standards in fractal art decide that they are responsible for a change in policy by a large publishing company? The preceding statement, of course, presumes that there has indeed been a change in policy but the overweening arrogance to confidently state that they know exactly what other people are thinking or why they are doing what they are doing has never yet eluded Orbit Trap so I shouldn’t be surprised it’s not eluding them now. They rarely fail to live down to my expectations of them.

The question always raised by OT’s smug expressions of superiority is why on earth do they insist on complaining about styles of art they personally dislike? Because that’s all it is: they’re not any more qualified to pass opinions than you, gentle reader, or I – unless it is a personal opinion. They wish to be arbiters of taste: well, wouldn’t we all? Wouldn’t life just be hunky-dory if we never had to rest our eyes on images we find unpleasant, trite, poorly composed or coloured? Goodness: if that happy day ever came to pass I wouldn’t have to look at any more of OT’s own efforts!

I read a comment today – in a photography forum I frequent – in response to a few distinctive and unusual photographs which were posted : “Problem with this sort of stuff is it could be rubbish from a beginner – or be an edgy style from an expert”. Doesn’t that just nicely sum up the disease infesting the art world as a whole? Experienced photographers (an art form which has been in existence considerably longer than fractal art) cannot discern the difference without a backstory, without knowing the photographer’s ‘standing’ in the milieu. But if ‘someone’ had praised that photographer and that style; if that photographer had work displayed in established galleries and was well-known then the flock of sheep would have rushed to acclaim it. An unknown photographer however? Shit out of luck.

So where does that leave fractal art? In the wilderness, I suggest, still needing time to settle into its own niche. And I suspect that that niche will be a broad one, just as broad as traditional art. I can only hope that fractal art will not also be subsumed by the pretentious and the artsheep who think that technique and skill are secondary to intent and explanation and other people’s opinions.