"Stealing the Mona Lisa" response

"One primary reason that artists create images is to distract other people from looking at the artists herself." -Darian Leader

Looking makes people uncomfortable, myself included.  I can almost always feel a gaze, which I think is something that most people are sensitive to.  There is something about the eyes that is so powerful and intimidating; if the onlooker is a stranger, it makes the eyes even more so.  Gazing seems to indicate that there is something wrong, or some sort of spectacle.  Spectacles are more interesting for the spectator than for the person involved in the spectacle, because they are being called out by onlookers.  I agree with Leader's comment to some extent.  I am sure that in some cases art is created to distract from the artist.  The actual work would then become the spectacle rather than the person; it is almost as if the art takes the heat of the stares from the onlookers instead of the artist.  Art can take judgements and gazes much better than any human can.  However, I also think that art calls attention to the artist. Whenever I view a piece of art, I try to draw conclusions about the creator. I think about what they were perhaps intending with the work, the emotions inherent in it, and the meaning behind the choice of medium. These questions all lead me back to the artist, so I believe that someone cannot always hide behind their creativity.  Art is soul and emotion in physical form, therefore it is a piece of the person that created it.  When someone gazes at a piece of artwork, there is no difference between the artist and the art itself.