Everyone in the world can create art, most of us do not do it well enough to make a living or even to think about making a living. Many of us earn a living doing something else and we can buy art. Everyone was a different view of what is art and the book What Are You Looking At? – the surprising, shocking and sometimes strange story of 150 years of modern art by Will Gompertz published by Dutton, NY, 2012.

In the book is a wonderful paragraph – if 10 people were to stand on a hill and take a photograph of the same view, using the same camera, the results would be near identical. If the same 10 people sat down for a few days and painted that view, the results would marked different. Not because one individual might be a more accomplished artist than another, but owing to the nature of humans: we can all look at the same view, but we do not see quite the same thing. We bring our own unique mix of prejudices, experiences, tastes and knowledge to any given situation, informing how we interpret what is before us. We all see the things we find interesting and ignore those that we do not.

Much of modern art is doing something different than expected. It is a new way to look at that viewpoint. Most people start with the old masters and landscapes – they are easy to relate to. Modern art would look at the landscape and ask what is the most important thing – could it be enhanced? does the viewpoint have to be exact? or what is the viewer  focusing on? If the answer is yes it could be, then you are open to new ideas or at least a different one. If the answer is no, then you keep to the old style. The great thing about modern art is there can be no wrong answer, except for if you are buying for enhanced values in the future you have to believe either in the greater fool will pay more or the art really will be worth more money in the future. Sometimes it is hard to tell.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, while profitable companies never go out of style, the names of them do change over time. A simple exercise is look at the Fortune 50 stocks in the year of your birth or your father’s birthdate, when you are 25 and 50. The names on many companies will have changed for a variety of reasons, which is the reason why you need to review your portfolio on a semi regular basis. Ask your yourself how does the company make profits? and what is the outlook for continuing to do so? If the answers are remain easy to answer then it is possible to keep them or do nothing and watch the dividends flow. If the answer is more complex, there are always alternatives in the marketplace.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.