In article <4a82jo$8m1@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, marb1@aol.com says...
(virtually all material [rated "4"] deleted)
>Do you think Van Gogh and Gaugin sat around talking about brands of
>brushes or canvas or oils?? I think they instead talked about art!

Hmmmm.... I have pointed this out before, but the movie "Naked Lunch"
has a running sub-plot about various famous writers' devotion to, praises for, and jealousies about their typewriter brands - it is
both funny, and familiar. Also, "artists", even ones that are now
really, really famous, are people, not lofty etherial beings - and
they have preferences about food, cars, paint and paint brush brands,
pianos makes (heck, even bow makers), etc. - and some like to talk
about those preferences, express their convictions about why their
preferences are truly representative of wisdom in all its glory, etc.
(Now, about that absurd assertion way up there in this thread [that everyone just passes on] that the average Leica lens is better than
the average Nikon (or Canon) lens - balderdash!.......)
Hope this helps.........