Schrodingerneko

In a recent debate in a chat, two people asserted the notion that a creative work is only art when it has no other function. Art is functionless (or so they said). I question this, because art is rarely accidental. Someone acts with intent to produce it, with some goal in mind for their actions. Surely this goal, whatever it may be, gives the final object a function? Even if this goal is only to produce beauty, please the senses, or create some piece of mass so they can call it art, aren't these all functional in some way? Just as a toilet functions to take waste away from us, art functions to bring something to us, to our conciousness or t

I know, I haven't been drawing nearly enough. I have an excuse though, I had an extremely hectic and confusing semester at uni, where they nearly failed me 5 times (through little if any fault of my own - my faculty is famous for its problems, I now have first hand experience of why). Now that's almost over, I find I have some time on my hands, and I've been sketching a bit. I'm quite out of practice however, and lacking inspiration. Any suggestions would be warmly appreciated! I have one (bad) sketch I'll post up soon for some preliminary critique - There's something not quite right about the perspective and I'd like some feedback so I c

My favourite community tool on DA is the random deviation button. I can be transported instantly to a work or art.... or not. What amazes me is the signal-to-noise ratio I get when using this button. I'm not talking about poor artists, I don't mind that, since part of the reason I use the button is to critique work, and help others improve. I mean stuff like screenshots, snapshots, sketches etc. Even when placed in their appropriate catagories, they still seem to outweigh genuinely concious creative work by something like 5-to-1. It just bugs me.