Andy Warhol was quoted as saying "Art is whatever you can get away with." I think history has shown us that is absolutely true. Michelangelo is art, so is Rob Liefeld. The pretentions must be broken down not by categorizing -- by saying that something is "lost" when a work is labeled "art" -- but by saying it is all art, and nobody gets to say who can and cannot be in the club.

JB,

I received my art degree back in the mid 90's. I've been in charge of a small art department for seven years. The more control I get over my craft the more I feel a draftsman and less of an artist. I've become more of a Quality Control person for the department. All I see are the flaws in other artists work. Flaws being the lack of quality in their work in  the allotted time I have given them to complete said task. Is this commen trait with artists with experience?

...art?

Leonardo's Mona Lisa is a work of art. I'm probably digging a grave for myself by saying this, but he could have drawn a window frame behind the woman. The piece would have made more sense.

A couple months back I went to the Philadelphia art museum to catch the Andrew Wyeth exhibit. It amazed me what his early drafts with pen and paper produced. How much his final product differed from his early sketches. I do encourage several ruff sketches before producing the final product.

I would label the car or camera attached more as art than your isometric example. As an artist I see flaws in the isometric inner casings detail. But the draftsman probably punched in a bunch of coordinates (in Autocad) and when he believed he was finished he just stopped. The 3D animator's needed to make the inner casings detail more elaborate and realistic to hold up against his audience.

My experience dictates that the mental approach between the artist and the draftsman is different. The draftsman just wants to make the quick buck and work overtime on the weekend to make a little more. The artist ( at least a good artist) knows what he wants to convey to his audience. He knows his subject material and just wants to make his art last in his audiences mind long after viewing it. Take the two example shown. Will you remember the details of camcorder or the camera/ car later tonight?

Another good Douglas Adams exploration into the meaning of art can be found as the subtext behind the Doctor Who series "City of Death" which was recently released on DVD. Well worth watching and thinking about.

To my mind, art is the effective communication of ideas, and thus a lot of things we don't normally think of as "art" can be elevated as such. It must be remembered, however, that not all ideas are necessarily equal and not all modes of communication are obviously the cleverest way to explore those ideas. That’s where a lot of confusion lies when it comes to discussing the work of people like Mapplethorpe. (Nicely composed photograph, but the subject matter…)