I forgot to mention perhaps the best example of non-pretty, but
important artwork, especially since this thread was started by a
letter from the Pope. Consider all the artwork that has been created
depicting or referring to the Crucifixion of Jesus. This is certainly
not a physically beautiful scene for many people to contemplate, but
many people place great value in much of the artwork that the event
inspired. I can't think of a more pertinent example than that.

At this point, I began to realize the verbosity of my contributions to
this thread and wondered why I spent so much effort on stating my
view. The answer is partly that I want to encourage people to live
balanced and thoughtful lives. I also feel that many POV-Users might
overlook art that isn't of the "eye candy" variety. At the same time,
many serious art critics dismiss much computer art as mechanically
generated "eye candy" and consider it to be of lesser value. I feel
there is a certain amount of shortsightedness in both situations.

I feel a need to speak on behalf of raytraced art that doesn't aim to
be pretty or be "eye candy", but pursues other goals. Currently there
isn't enough raytraced art of this variety. I would love to see some
artists achieve critical acclaim by creating High Art using
raytracing as their medium. In order to achieve this, we need to
create more types of raytracings than eye candy alone.

Later,
Glen Berry

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