Skinny Legs and All Themes

Skinny Legs and All Themes

The Definition of True Art

Skinny Legs and All holds up many items for ridicule and/or satire, but Robbins spends a lot of time trying to define what art is, and what is good and bad art. The main vehicle for this exercise is Ellen Cherry Charles and her husband, Boomer Petway. An artist since her youth, Robbins sees her as the artistic ideal. Ellen Cherry is never happier than when she is painting, but it is a relationship that overshadows her feelings for her husband. Robbins uses the big city art scene for further proof of modern art's absurdity. Ellen Cherry is a success in Seattle, despite the popularity of dour, depressing images there. In New York, the concept of popular art is further ridiculed. Boomer, a beer-swilling high school dropout with little artistic tendency, becomes a success for sculptures that would seem silly to most people. Meanwhile, Ellen Cherry's abstract landscapes are not...
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