I think many people (and I'm not saying you don't, fish) appreciate great art and great artists. It's something that us everyday Joe's can't relate to, just like we can't relate to truly great athletes. There's a beauty in that greatness that we respect and admire and in many ways, worship. It's something so rare and fleeting that to watch it leave this world, the mortality of that art's creator known to us or not, is saddening. At some point in our lives, their art did something for us; it provided great reprieve, joy, insight, oblivion, you name it. Art can do many things for us, and for a certain artist to die, while I agree, should not and does not affect me/us in the slightest really, I still find it sad that said greatness can truly never be recaptured.