Self-Portrait in my past studio in Rhodes, Greece

What is meaning in art? Does art have a “built-in” purpose for humanity? Is making art learned, instinctual, neither or both? Is anything art because an artist or critic thinks so? Does art express the artist’s world view? Is there a connection between philosophy and art? Is subjective/introspection the essence of art? Is abstraction the ultimate end of art? Does art need a medium, a form, to be art? Or can it just be a concept? Are there themes in art? If so how are they knowable? Is there a divide between subject and means? Do the ends justify the means? How does one judge art? Or is it really in the eye of the beholder?

Michael Newberry