Interesting question to pose Outrider, it definetely makes us question what art is. The funny thing about this, is that I've recently taken a class in Anthropology that questioned this very thing. But as Ender points out some people make some strange things into art and his book being shot by a .22 is a good example of that. Another example in France (though I forget the artist's name) had put a urinal into a art gallery and it was the act of putting the urinal into the art gallery that made it art. But seriously, a urinal? Though in another case an archaeologist attempted to put in a hunting net (used by a tribe in Africa, but I forget their name too) but she was told that her hunting net belonged in an artifact museum because of the utility that the net provided for the people.
If we look at Western European Art and how they define artwork, they may consider GI JOE picture taking as a form of artwork if we could only get it into an art gallery. Outrider, I think you have a good chance of pulling that off. But we if think of art in the form of aesthetics and what we find as stimulating, then for us joe fans of course pictures of GI JOEs are art, I believe that certainly. Again as a few of you have already mentioned, art is in the eye of the beholder and it is completely subjective. But for the sake of argument lets call ourselves GI JOE artists and pat each other on the back.
