Art/Outside The Lines/Ugliness

I took a painting class in college and

My teacher was crazy

Best class I ever took

One day she brought in

A bunch of pictures of flowers and kittens

And asked us

“Is this art?”

I said no

Most of the class said yes of course

She asked why I said no

I said

“It doesn’t say anything. It’s a decoration”

She agreed wholeheartedly

This morning when I saw this

On my feed

I am reminded of this conversation

Why is a doctor

Drawing Anne Hathaway?

Was she a patient?

Wtf y’all

Also why is she younger

In this picture than IRL

All of it is weird as fuck

And yet

13 thousand people like it

Presumably because of its

Execution.

The guy seems like he could be

In surgeons gown

In his profile picture—

Is it art

For a surgeon

To precisely imitate

Anne Hathaway from a younger picture

Onto a piece of paper with ball point pen?

The thing I enjoy the most hands down

Is the pen medium

Gorgeous texture

Anyway, this one confuses me

It fails most of my checks for what

Art is while also

Thoroughly impressing me

I don’t think it’s up to me to decide

Who gets to express what for whatever reason

But it does often seem like

People are telling me

I’m too rough, too brash

Too outside the lines

With my art, with my painting, with my music

With my podcast—

Why is it that

People like

Boring as meaningless shit

Like Anne Hathaway portraits

More than self-expression ?

Is the self part

The ugliest, and if so—

Why can’t that be the focus ?