When is art not Art?

Oy! When is art not art? What is art anyway. Seeing all the paintings in the galleries on main street in Annapolis yesterday was very confusing. Let's just say I get confused. Why does it all look cloying to me? I hardly ever use that word. Cloying. Or sick.
Carl thinks that when the work is not coming from a real need to express something, it registers clearly as - well, choose a word, any word but not "art." i.e. if the artist is painting pictures to sell, or to look like something pretty, or - no, I can't go on.

Kendall Gallery

Yay, the owner liked my work a lot! I brought in five pieces that are 12x12" and a smaller one that beautifully captures a marsh area in Wellfleet. I am obsessed with the marsh grass at the moment.
So, what next? She will discuss my work with her artist husband with whom she co-owns the gallery, and HOPEFULLY will include my work in an exhibit next season. Now it's fall/winter, and the whole scene hibernates.
We intend to visit the area every few months. It's interesting to finally realize that when you have a connection to a place, looking for a gallery there makes sense.
I've never had much luck in DC and - not much to say here, just a big sigh.

Provincetown Art

Last weekend we were on Cape Cod. Friday night was a kind of gallery walk thing - we thought it was only at Julie Heller East (she's the gallery owner who used to live in Kensington!) - but it was all up and down Commercial Street and the museum was open and free.
What a scene. Predictable high end tone to the JHE gallery - after all it IS at the high end. Distinguished looking folks looking like they own the arts in P'town, and lots of hugs and handshakes and in-crowd feeling. Generic high end.
I asked to photograph a couple of colorful women in the museum and they were pleased as punch. Maybe I'll upload that photo. The older woman's husband was having a major show at the museum - large Cape Cod landscapes in oil. I thought they were masterful, if a bit facile. Nice texture of the grasses, lovely skies, light, and reflections in water. Stuff I'm after. Carl disliked them - TOO facile and acrobatic to his mind. Perhaps.
Sometimes I really cannot tell - not being a judgmental type, according to Myers Briggs. I see what I like and leave the rest. I SEARCH for what might inspire me. Sometimes I find nothing.
As far as finding a Provincetown gallery that might show my work - a more and more elusive and unlikely prospect. Every gallery says "we show local Cape Cod and regional artists, or, "we show dead P'town artists and a few who are alive."