Calvin tells Hobbes art isn't about ideas, it's about style. Calvin says the most crucial career decision is to pick a good "ism" so everyone knows how to categorize you without understanding the work. Hobbes says Calvin does goofy drawings on the sidewalk. Calvin says he's a suburban post-modernist. He says he was going to be a neo-deconstructivist, but Mom wouldn't let him.

Calvin complains that life is tough for suburban post-modernists. People seem reluctant to pay for drawings that wash away in the rain. Nobody wants tax money to support art. Corporations won't underwrite him because he's not famous enough. Hobbes asks if he could support his art with another job. Calvin is indignant that Hobbes would suggest work.

As Calvin draws on the sidewalk, he tells Hobbes people make the mistake of thinking art is created for them. He says art is a private language for sophisticates to congratulate themselves on their superiority to the rest of the world. He hands Hobbes an artist's statement. It explains his work is incomprehensible and therefore full of deep significance.