ART. It is so above and beyond me, and at the same time it can be so banal: Oh, look, naked ladies. A soup can. Some colors. More naked ladies. (And they all look the same!)

I need story. STORY and when possible, words. Visual media often dispense with both.

So I was surprised at how fantastic it was to wander around the AIPAD photography show this past weekend as a guest of InMotion. Two artists in particular ran away with me. Ordinarily I would not reveal my preference for anything without knowing in advance what conventional wisdom has to say. Am I making a sophisticated choice or a ridiculous one? Are my tastes bourgeois, or passe? I’m much more comfortable stating my opinions about films, but then, it is no risk to state an appreciation of Jane Eyre, for example, which I also saw this weekend.

When it comes to art, I am a total naif — and I hope to be judged as such. So if my taste is laughable or offends you, forgive me. I am coming from a position of knowing almost nothing except What I Like (story!) and What I Like Less (having to look at boobies & bush in ascetic public contexts and alongside strange men).

Okay, ready? These were the two folks I totally fell for: Tim Walker and Julie Blackmon.

Cool, right? $5000 worth of cool, not counting the frames. Art is for the rich. But I enjoyed the work of these artists! In fact I wanted to jump through the frames and live in their pictures. Flip through their other photos — they really are worth your time, and probably your $5K, although I really wouldn’t know about that.