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 ?