SkilledFella 2023-06-23 16:10:04

Nice essay!

If my art wants to be pretty great (it doesn't have to like you said), I need to work hard, and so can you! :)

This newspost says it all.

BecomeTheFridge 2023-06-23 16:21:32

While I don't entirely agree with how much of a threat cancel culture is to artists and their legacy (I think the reality is a bit more nuanced than that)--

I can entirely agree with the rest of your sentiment.
The chase for fame, perfection, and being one of the greats has probably been the literal death of many people who, despite their insecurities, were decent, if not great, at their work.
Art History's focus on the "Great Man theory" has its flaws, practically deifying people who were flawed in many ways (even Da Vinci had issues completing many of his works, if I recall correctly).
And Social Media exasperates that phenomenon. The chase for views, likes, and ad money can make the whole scene an overly cynical affair (tho I won't knock people for wanting to make a career out of that if they can--so long as they don't destroy themselves).

Speaking from my perspective-- I have passion projects I'd like to complete. I'd certainly appreciate it if they were a big hit-- but knowing my flaws and tendencies to procrastinate and slowly learn, there's a reason why being an artist isn't my career (I'm a GIS Technician).
Chasing dreams is undoubtedly an excellent thing, but for artists especially, I'd rather see folk complete their work (myself included) than gamble everything for fame and glory.

Apologies if my reply is a bit rambly. Kinda shooting from the hip, so to speak.

S3C 2023-06-23 16:52:45

At some point many artists will face some kind of crisis for not meeting the standards for which they set for themselves, to which this post is a valuable message. I think I overall agree with what you're functionally saying but the point lacks a bit of nuance. While you don't explicitly state it (and it may just be my perception) the tone of the post conflates greatness with fame and success, which at the end of the day are meaningless. Writing 100 helpful reviews, immortalizing a track in a portal submission, or providing a local community with art lessons to enrich their lives provides lasting value and IMO, is greatness. Secondly, 'cancel culture' is nothing new, it's just that progressives and heavy-handed liberals have been dominating the mainstream view for some time. And this is just one current subset in the overall modern cultural picture. In the 20th century it was Christians and 'Satanic' rock music. In some Middle-Eastern countries certain art is haram. In North Korea you can't make anything that doesn't worship the country and it's leader. Nazi Germany would have banned 90% of content on NewGrounds on the basis of being Entartete Kunst. And historically, art that conflicts with current censorship notions usually comes out enriched in the end.

lwpage 2023-06-23 17:49:37

This is why I never call myself an artist, instead an animator :^)

lwpage 2023-06-23 17:52:10

Also, even michelangelo went through this crisis, he destroyed much of his works close to his death. He got lucky he was remembered.

KroKroKro 2023-06-23 23:05:00

Feck you, oim the best

MetalSlayer69 2023-06-23 23:42:44

shut up and draw, nerd

Bundeluxe 2023-06-24 00:30:20

I think one of the big reasons why artists feel an almost primal, instinctive need to be famous is because of the desire to make their craft into their career. I assume that a pretty large chunk of us have at least a slight aspiration to make money off of our work, but it's hard to do that if you're just some normal guy in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, and not someone whose name is well-known enough to get necessary connections. That thought can be very stressful, and flood your mind with the idea that you are not good enough, not as good as you "should be".

Everyone, no matter their skill level, knows this - learning how to make art of any kind is hard. Getting noticed as an artist is much harder. Making money with your art is even more difficult. Making enough money with your art to be financially stable feels downright impossible sometimes unless you are THE guy, THE artist, the cream of the crop, the top 1%, etc.
I believe that, for a lot of people, this mentality is a major driving force behind their stupidly high standards for themselves - it's like a survival instinct telling you to get your shit together, even though you're technically not doing anything wrong.

This is twice as true for the people who not only want to get an art job, but want to make a career out of making their own books, comics, animation, music, etc - in this case, your work would have to be so absolutely out-of-this-world good that it should be impossible to ignore so a publisher company will want to hire you and keep you around.

This is THRICE as true for those who want to do all of the above, but decide that companies are lame (they are) and want to self-publish their work.

Then all of this is accelerated by social media which is all of these concepts on meth, and morphs everything into this nauseating numbers game where you have to compare several factors (quality, quantity, likes/shares/favorites/other stats etc) to those of seemingly millions of other artists, and if your numbers are lower, you're conditioned to believe that you've "failed".

Maybe I'm completely wrong about everything and this is all nonsense, but this summarizes my thoughts on the subject. Of course the most important thing about your art is that you need to enjoy making it, but I can understand that those who want to advance into the world of professionals will put pressure on themselves to push past their limits. Sometimes it just isn't as simple as "just enjoy your art", although that should, by all means, be the driving force and main motivation.

I'm kinda in that same boat and still catch myself judging my own work too harshly sometimes instead of loosening up. To be fair, I don't even mind. Having a pessimistic voice in my head that keeps me from losing touch with reality is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as that voice isn't so loud that it drowns out my positive thoughts. At the very least, I prefer it over the other extreme end of the spectrum - becoming some huge narcissist who NEVER critiques his own work, believing it to be absolutely perfect and flawless every time and insulting/blocking/etc everyone who says otherwise.

So honestly, in a weird way, I kind of hope I'll never become the "great artist" I always wanted to be. I've learned to enjoy the journey too much for there to be a definitive end destination - I never want to run out of things to learn even when I'm old and have most of my life behind me.

If you've read this whole thing, thank you. I'm extremely tired and seriously unsure if this even makes any sense

QueenBoo 2023-06-24 01:17:24

If I could favorite this newspost, I would.

CheeseBaron 2023-06-24 01:26:27

So true brotha
#slay

itsreddqueen 2023-06-24 02:38:27

THANK. YOU. This actually feels like a breath of fresh air to read about.

BickerySebastian 2023-06-24 10:14:51

This is an essay worthy enough to be on the Artist News, that if there was an award for this, I would be definitely voting for this as a winner.

lwpage 2023-06-24 12:07:38

If I could make a suggestion, you should have reworded the beginning you were talking about one of the greats aka DaVinci, rather than come across you were acting like we all have no chance of being great at all and we might as well kill ourselves. I've seen that really nihilistic mentality online lots of times, where a lot of artists wallow in self pity that they'll never be remotely great at all because of extreme inferiority complex. That they'll never be remembered for anything, not a soul will care about them nor be saddened by their passing and nobody at all will enjoy what they make. Pretty sad to watch.

thestupidmeddy 2023-06-24 16:45:41

How ironic! You wrote this essay just when I found myself needing something like it. Thank you for writing this.

TheMiamiDeSantos 2023-06-25 18:27:49

that's why hitler did give up on art and prefer to be a genocidal, it's easier