So what is fanart, anyway?

Fanart immediately brings to mind cheesy jokes or overly-dramatic portraits of characters that are not the artist's own creation, but rather characters they love after having seen them through someone else's work.

There have been many, many, many mentions of the "lower" worth of fanart, how original art should be prized more, how creating new concepts, ideas, characters, and stories are of much more value than this cop-off echo of something already established.

I don't agree with this idea, and I'm going to explain exactly why. When an artist creates an original object or story, one that has worth and reaches out to people enough to invoke the desire to CREATE fanart, that is the point when the fanart should be created and it would be a damn shame for it not to be. Reason? From the stupidest gag to the most involved form of thought given to any given character or scenario, fanart is a response from the readers on a story, a commentary, a communication. Almost always, an author or artist of a story is not able to tell you everything, and you can always feel for the gaps in what you've discovered about these characters you've come to love. Whether it's through repetition of what you already know, trivialization of a more complicated situation, wishful thinking, a demonstration of complex analysis, or a combination of any or all, fanart allows you to see a story through many sets of eyes instead of just one. It allows you to branch out your understanding of it through affirmation or denial of the fanart's vailidity, allows you to enjoy the ideas and concepts and characters that much more. A story that invites commentary but gets none would be a sad, empty thing.

Fanart is the physical manifestation of Fandom, which is the very purpose of Stories to begin with. Yes, the purpose of telling stories is the people who read them. People do not tell stories so that there will be no reaction. People do not tell stories to stand stiff and alone, invoking no change and no sort of impression. People tell stories to reach out to people, and stories that create a response like fanart are coming round full circle in their development.

In essence, a good story is only half of this circle, and the communicative response of the readers or viewers is the other half. This marks fanart in equal importance to original art, not downplaying the validity and value of either, as I adore, condone, and create both myself. I'm working very hard on my own story at this time, and I hope to be able to communicate it well enough that it can touch people and have an impact, like the stories I have read that have inspired me. But after my work is done and the story's over and there's nothing left for me to tell, I would still consider that only half finished.

Your response: Y/N...?