I think naivete — whether that fits you or not — is one of those interesting qualities that can be both a weakness and a strength.

I understand, no worries.

I understand what your saying. I just think once an artist goes with what is trendy, once you go with what is popular an artist will stop doing what they feel. Once that happens you lose something special. Perhaps I am naive or foolish. to me art is expression- passion. Once an artist caters to what others want instead of there own passions they lose the spark that made there art so wonderful in the first place.

My apologies for startling you, as Steve described it. That said, I do have a grandson by that name who is an avid kid and who draws on the sidewalk when the opportunity presents itself. I only seem arch.

A trend is a moving stamp of approval for many. If you are the kind of person who can decide value for his or her own self, then I applaud you as one of a number of such souls on this site.

I think you’re right about Karl’s position in particular, but I don’t know how general that is–depends on what you mean by cynical. Maybe someone should come up with a list of propositions for us to vote on so we could see.

wolfbaby,

Haven’t seen you in a while — perhaps Jay’s style of humor startled you. But your comment was quite apropos. Even if not, I’m all for deviation.

I’ve always heard that the advice to collectors and would-be collectors is to only buy what you love, if for no other reason than you’ll care about it more and probably build a better collection. But I suppose there really are institutional or other investors who are truly buying on speculation that prices will rise, and they want to get in on something new that is hopefully headed higher, i.e. trendy. Somehow it seems unfortunate, as it appears to distort what kind of art gets done. But do we really want that money spent on something other than art?

Anyway, it’s unclear that what happens at those upper levels of the art market has much to do with me or you. I see your point about selling, but for my part, I hope someone does buy my photos because they think they’re the latest trend…

I think that this forum’s general position is pretty cynical in relation to the art market. I am a bit involved with the artworld and I have known many people who have bought art and I cannot think of one person who bought a piece because they considered it “trendy”. I think most people buy for the “appeal”.

your correct I should have refrained from commenting on something I obviously know nothing about. However, I was not insulting anyone, perhaps you could have refrained as well.