Monika's Thesis

Everything is art.

That is what I am now calling Monika’s Thesis.

Just to make it official, here it is again.

Monika’s Thesis: Everything is art.

Monika Blichar asserted her thesis while we were talking on the phone about the recent trade we were about to make; and I’ve been intrigued by it ever since.

(Just as a quick aside, I’m not sure that I have publicly thanked either Monika or Gregory Dolnikowski for participating in my project. So thank you both. Meeting both of you, albeit over the phone, and trading paintings with you was really an incredible pleasure.)

Now, back to Monika’s Thesis. In some senses of the terms ‘everything’ and ‘art', I think that her thesis is probably false but in other senses probably true. I like claims like that. Indeed, there is something of an art to making them.

Here is a related thesis. I will call it The Ubiquity Thesis.

The Ubiquity Thesis: Beauty is everywhere.

Like Monika’s Thesis, I think that in some senses of the words ‘beauty’ and ‘everywhere’ The Ubiquity Thesis is probably false but in other senses probably true.

Just because I’m in a thesis-making mood, here is one more. I’ll call it The Money Thesis.

The Money Thesis: Economic value tends to track aesthetic value.

Something in me finds The Money Thesis distasteful if for no other reason that that it seems to conflict with both Monika’s Thesis and The Ubiquity Thesis, two theses that I like.

But then again something in me finds The Money Thesis comforting.

But is it true?

That’s always an interesting question to ask.

That’s what I want to find out.