Q: How do I know whether a work of art is good?

A: When you taste food, you detect its goodness with your tongue. When you hear music, you detect its goodness with your ear. When you look at art, detect its goodness with your eye.



Q: What is the purpose of art?

A: Art objects provide visual delectation. People can make art objects serve a wide variety of additional functions, and have done so. These other functions may make them interesting for historical or intellectual reasons, but don't have any goodness (or badness) in themselves. It happens, especially in contemporary art, that an artist presents an object with poor visual qualities, with functions other than visual delectation. Such objects often have the intention to provoke thought in some way. Whatever interesting insights they may prompt, the strategy resembles using a broken hammer to prop open a door - using a tool that doesn't perform its original purpose well for another purpose unrelated to its category. That it works, in its way, doesn't inspire celebration.



Q: What is the cheapest type of clay to buy to make a sculpture?

A:Ceramic clay is always the least expensive option in terms of the cost of the clay. Polymer clay and plasteline is much more expensive pound for pound. If you pay a local potter (anyone who has free kiln space) a small fee, most will accept your work for firing - as long as it has dried thoroughly and has no large air-locks.