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A lot of times the difference between a “good” picture and a “great” picture is pre-visualization. I have heard that Ansel Adams, one of the premiere photographers, became so good at pre-visualization that he would determine what filters he would use and how he would process the shot in the darkroom even before he set up his tripod and camera to shoot that shot. And then he would wait for the light that he had pre-visualized.

I imagine that the same pre-visualization techniques are used in other artistic ventures. Painters, whether an impressionists or candid, benefit from the ability to have an idea of what they want to share with us before they start. If the artist does not employ some of those techniques of pre-visualization, then what would be the difference between their art and that of an elephant painting? And yes, there are folks that want to sell you some “Elephant Art” (paintings created entirely by elephants). Yet when I consider how some elephants act towards their kind, and then the way some artists acts towards their kind, I realize that elephants seem to be much more intelligent then artists. So maybe elephants do pre-visualize?

If you (the royal you, meaning each one of us) really appreciates a ‘work of art’ whether created by an elephant, a spider, or even a human, do you (royal again) not have the right to call that work as art, or even fine art?

I recently heard an opinion by an artist that fine art can not be something made by a computer. I can not concur with that opinion. For I believe, 1st of all, that art is what you think is art, and secondly, art is made by man or beast no matter what the process includes. Art can be a spoken word (poems, come to mind). Art can be a table or dinning room hutch made by a craftsman. Art can be a frail spiderweb highlighted by the morning dew and spotlighted by the Sun. Or art can be as simple as a Mother’s smile while holding a new born. Fine Art is feeling, Fine Art is emotion, Fine Art is sharing.

And that is my Bright Idea