I think I've said it often enough that: Art in the personal declarative form does not exist outside of experiencing it. Art is a form of belief. To say something is art is to acknowledge its aesthetic impact, subjectively. The belief makes it so; if you believe it's art then so it is. There is another sort of "art" which is a name for cultural objects and practices that don't require my belief or experience but may be identical to my experience and beliefs of art. They are honorific and are subject to cultural and curatorial and ownership influences. But nothing is common to them all except form and form is not sufficient.
As for the unfuzzy benefit. I agree with the exceptions you list. I thought it was sort of evident in the context of my remarks that I was speaking of art. Actually that (art) is my life -- now I scarcely have any interaction with the world outside of art. The details of daily transactions are handled by my wife, my broker, my gallerists and, yes, doctors. My interest in language, as here, is surely tied to clarity and but I expect the other guy to make a little effort to understand what I say but I confess sometimes I don't want to make any effort to understand him. Thus I expect you and others to be absolutely clear. I claim creative exemption from that because I'm a very important, wrongly marginalized artist whose aphorisms and little quips and deadly on target critiques of aesthetical jabberwocky are widely recorded and often quoted (by grandchildren). When the other guy says something notable, I pay attention; if not I ignore it. Doesn't everybody? Now to be serious in ending. I don't think of myself as an artist, as the tone of your remark suggests a degree of "wannabe" to my demeanor. I am an artist and the evidence (beyond my control) is a matter of record easily retrieved via google and any decent library in the US and elsewhere. I work at my art every day and have hundreds of ptgs. in collections all over America and in Europe, even S. America. So stuff it on that score! Otherwise I'm a sweet friend and a loyal companion of any advocate of ideas, even unfuzziness, now and then. WC
