Mass Market Monster (Art?)

Alright. Art. What defines it? Is there really SUCH a fine line, or is it so bold of a wall that we'd just rather not see it? We can quite obviously find a ginormous difference between artist and painter, player and musician, but what exactly IS it that makes them so different?

An artist paints, draws, chalks with their soul; with the valves that open to the light that flows and filters through their body and onto the canvas, boundless and free. A painter paints what is aesthetically pleasing, what they feel will mindfully appeal to the masses.

One is empty. One is full.

Mass marketing clouds the beauty that is art and redefines it as an advertisement; something that sells show, not truth. It is empty, easily tweaked, and just as easily re-produced. Adorno mentions this "assembly line-character of the culture industry, the synthetic, planned method of turning out its products," in his conversation with Benjamin.

Mass producing a piece of art can also chip away at the soul within the work. There is something to be said about "the undiscovered artist." To come upon something fresh is, well, re-freshing, but once it reaches the machine, it can be spewed out in the millions alongside other painters replicating the same style seen made popular. Monet touches on this. I am jaded by the common replication of his work, and it has made it difficult for my eyeballs to fall into his pieces.

Here. Have a looksy.