Digital BW, The Print

Are Beethoven's later works diminished because he never heard them
performed? 
Todd

> Ah, but do you(we) not see our own work? Do you(we) not respond, react and
> keep making art?
  
>>> Art is worth
>>> nothing, if it doesn't provoke communication between the viewer and the work
>>> - at a minimum. If the art stimulates discussion and interaction among
>>> viewers and between artists and viewers, so much the better.
>>> Art is not always beautiful, but it is nothing if not seen.
>> 
>> So a person who "creates" work purely for their own enjoyment, for the love
>> of the act rather than the result, is not an artist, and their creations are
>> not art until they are seen?
>> 
>> I realize this is analogous to whether a tree makes as sound when it
>> falls....and the sound of one hand clapping....But art is a Zen thing. It is
>> a function of the mindset of the artist in the moment(s) of creation.
>> 
>> Art isn't in the object that we see, it's in the process that creates it.
>> The power it may or may not have over us is in our interpretation of it, but
>> art lives in creation. No viewer is required.
>> 
>> Todd