I think that art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. And clearly there is no arguing about taste! One person’s dessert is another’s poison.

But I also believe education plays a strong part in the appreciation of art. For example, most people have been trained to see subject matter as content, and therefore cannot understand, let alone appreciate and enjoy, most abstract art. So I feel that the educational system has failed badly in this regard.

The current corporate culture has made art into a commodity, to be overhyped and marketed with no regard to intrinsic value such as deeply moving viewers and assisting in the transformational process.

Galleries depend upon sales in order to stay in business, so they will only display what people will buy. And only rarely will they take a chance on unknowns. Decorative art tends to sell well; work that is challenging and confrontative will not.

I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the ratio of galleries to population is the highest in the world. In a town of 85,000, there are more than 300 galleries!

But when I used to do the rounds, I almost never saw work that was fresh, vibrant, authentic and exciting, regardless of genre. Most of the art seems constructed to go with the potential buyer’s interior decor.

Many painters create decorative art because it sells, not because it has integrity and power.