magpie9 said:
Bad Art is Bad Art, Bacon (& Sausage) aside. We're not talking about some non-pretty girl with a great personality or grace in every movement; we're talking about badly drawn FACES, in a deck where most of the Art is very well done.
OK, regarding one strand of thought I see in this thread:
"Bad" art is a personal opinion and nothing more. Likewise "good" art.
Frankly I have never found a deck where I actually like how the faces are rendered. I have over 200 decks. I do not believe there is any such thing as universally good or bad, everything is a matter of cultural indoctrination, especially when it comes to something as subjective as artistic style. What makes a good face, the ability to render it accurately? Well, go take a photograph then.
Regarding another strand of thought:
Frankly I like decks where the book actually states where the person is coming from. I might not aree with their morals, but every single deck out there is made of the beliefs of its maker, and I appreciate when the author is upfront about those beliefs. Decks are inherently a vehicle for a system of belief. The user's, but also the creator's.
But then, I'm in the collecting as much from an anthopological standpoint and art historical (Note NOT "artistic", that's cultural, subcultural, personal subjectivity) as much anything else.
Another strand of thought running through this thread:
To be a bit cliche--pearls are created by the sand irritating the oyster. Pearls are beautiful, but they are essentially a form of scar tissue that we like to wear around our necks. How can we form ourselves without having something to form it against? You don't like it, fine. It provides something to contrast your personal values to. Therefore its a good thing. We're nothing without those things that we identify ourselves against--i is that which creates and elaborates on individuality.
And I need to listen to my own words more often and take power from them (lately I've been a bit too whiney about the things I don't like in life...). (I'm also in an arguing debating mood so my tone is a bit more confrontational than I intend about everything today...the spirit in which this is intended is more gentle than the bitchy voice its conveyed in, but gentle words aren't coming to me right now...)
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