One Week Away!

Okay, so the Div II filing deadline is exactly a week away. I have to get this contract written and send a draft to Thom so that he can have a look-see before he and Jutta sign on to it.
This means, of course, that I'm thinking a lot about my Div II and what I'm studying and how it's changed from my initial proposal. I think it's definitely changing for the better, or at least...I'm starting to figure out how to study what I want and how to better express what it is I want. So...excellent! Right? Haha.
I had a conversation with a Mt. Holyoke student I know today about how one of her advisors views anything that has a function other than to-be-looked-at-ness as not art. So again, another art view I really don't support. Actually, the whole idea of someone in an art field (who was, at one point, head of an art department) with that mindset really irritates me. A lot.
There are certainly some pieces of art that are only to be looked at, and that's fine. But that doesn't mean that things that have functions other than beauty can't also be art.
By this definition, a mask is not artwork - unless, of course, it is over-sized and hung on a wall.
I hatehatehate the idea that masks are meant solely to be hung on walls (says the girl with a porcelain mask collection, I know...). Masks are made to be worn. They are also meant to have some sort of aesthetic quality.
I also really hate being told that what I do isn't art - either because it has a function or because it doesn't have some hidden meaning (as I have mentioned before). I don't like my work being degraded, as I'm sure is the case with most artists.
Apparently, this same professor also claims than any and all forms of illustration is not art.
Baaaaaaaaaah.
I'm done ranting for now. Really, I am. I should go work on my Div II contract.