Where is the place for pretension in art? Is every endeavor to reach beyond where you are now a pretension?

What makes art if not pretension?
If no artist ever thought they were capable of doing better, of doing more, of being great, would any of them ever try? Without it we would be lost, and we would never press forward, never take the next step. Without the belief that we can be more than we are, we never would be. We would become stagnant. What is called "pretension" is a necessary part of building anything. Whether the endeavor be artistic, intellectual, physical etc. How will Gordon ever become anything more than a "small christian liberal arts college" without programs like JAF that try to point it toward something greater? Without the drive toward something higher, without steps taken to reach the next place, it would never go anywhere. Unless an artist believes they can paint something great, and begins attempting a great portrait, a great landscape, a great work (which puts them in danger of being called "pretentious") they will never achieve one.

To cow to this is to accept the lie that you will always be what you are, and that what you can achieve is perfectly understood. This is never the case. Whatever you think you are, whatever others think you are, is never quite right. Whatever can be thought about you is never actually you. Like the scientific laws, they are the descriptions of only what has been seen. They are a single interpretation of a scene in the story.