Yes..I'm gonna rant again

So..I was looking at a website...a BIG website for artists. They carry both prints by famous people...and then have a section for artists like me and you.
I again was appaled by the number of things called digital paintigs that were no more than photos with filters ran on them...as well as a large number of paintings with nothing but a bunch of colors swilred around with a smudge brush.
Oh!...And they ALL had important sounding titles and descriptions.
"An exploration into the pain of one man sitting alone at night, and
twiddling his thumbs alone ...with only the soft glow of an artificial heart
..his photoshop program...to make him feel close to anything other than his own sad soul."
or..
"These swirls and twirls are the virtual fingers of my dreamlover who can
only reach me through these colors that are pulsing and swirling through the vibes of the internet."
In their bios they talk about those who collect their work, and how they have been
drawing since the day that they still thought that pencils were eating utensils.

Lets be frank...if they used to draw...they stopped when they started making this kind
of work their main focus.

hmmm..I just got myslf so worked up that I did a real life rant to my Mom...it wasn't nearly as kind as this one.

The bottom line of what I said to Mom.
No computer is going to draw for you.
You MUST ...be it digitally( using a graphics tablet and a wacom) or with a pencil( or brush...etc) learn to draw and paint.
Effects will take you so far....then you stop.
Now I will never say what is or isn't art...that isn't my place.
But if you really want to be in a confident place...
where if you had a ...teehee...collector say.
"Hey Joe...I love the swirlies...could you draw my cat for now?"
You can do it.
You need to put in the background work to get there.
I'm doing it.
I have been there.
My digital work was...um...swirly.
Then I wanted to go beyond that.
I DO draw..but I saw I could be so much better...and that I have an
enormous amount of improvment to be done.
You have to lose that sense of
"Gee...look what I did when I set up my computer yesterday!"
Go ahead and get mad at me.
But if this makes one person take a new look at what they are doing...


Also, on that site that I found dismaying...
I looked under the "Photorealism" catagory...

I found ...photos.

Photorealism is a painting and drawing style, folks.
Not a pic that looks realistic because it's a photo!

Again..I am not singling out any one person...nor saying that
anyone isn't an artist.
I'm just saying that swirls and filters are not all there is to digital art.
And to the viewer...I say demand more.