Abandoned America1/ Today it occurred to me that I am very grateful that the internet has been wonderful for "getting my work out there" but 25 years ago I could have produced 1/10 the work I have now and had a tenured position for it and rested on my laurels. But because content is constant and disposable now the need to create it never stops. And you never "get there", you just keep treading water until you sink beneath it.
2/ It's not that I'm ungrateful for the people who appreciate my work or the fact that I get to share it with them. I am, so much. But we replaced stability and security with internet attention and that doesn't pay bills. It doesn't get you health care. And it doesn't give you any sort of longevity with your work. When you stop posting the already shallow well dries up and you're forgotten. That's what being an Internet Presence is. It's pouring your work and life in a bottomless hole.
3/ Most people are supportive of people posting their merch or Patreon links but at the end of the day that absolutely unreliable income has replaced any semblance of safety for those of us in the arts. And some people hate us for the fact that we have to dance for our dollar while still wanting us to produce for their enjoyment. It's just messed up to think it never ends. You never "get there". You just live to hustle another day until you don't.
4/ There are so many creators struggling and people think if you have a solid follower count that automatically means you have security. It doesn't. If you're out there struggling to get by, whether you have 10 followers or 1,000,000, I see you and feel it too. This isn't the way it should be, and isn't how it always was. There are a lot of great things about the internet but constantly having to put things out there or starve is not one of them. Your work has value beyond that.
5/ The industry of "content creation" doesn't care about you. It doesn't care if you have a safe home or heat or electricity or access to a doctor. It's all about posting things that are interesting for the moment they exist on the cusp of a trend so they can make ad $$ or whatever and then vanish. It's a sick, garbage cycle. Don't confuse the things you need to get by for internet fame, which is nothing. Idk what the alternative is. I haven't found it either.
6/ F*** me, I should've just swallowed my bile and got into NFTs* from the start, regardless of whether they were a scam or not 😔
* Look, I hate NFTs. That's not serious. Except I would be a lot better off if I didn't have a conscience then. You don't have to tell me NFTs are bad. If I had no morals I would have stayed on Twitter.
Anthony Sorace@AbandonedAmerica FWIW, there are two artists I love who got heavy into NFTs and it both made their work less interesting (I have some half-formed hypothesis about that encouraging the “content farm” mentality) and made it just personally distasteful. I’be stopped paying attention to their stuff, with some sadness. I’ve heard a lot of people say similar things. It’s a bit harder to measure, but you’ve saved a ton by not going the NFT route.
@AbandonedAmerica And I just bought a book.
@a thanks, I hope you enjoy it! And I unfollowed a ton of people doing NFTs. In retrospect I understand their desire to make money from what they do but God that system was gross and awful. It was basically having people in need of real income sell your wooden nickels. I hated it.
Olav@AbandonedAmerica @a I have semi-joked, "I'll sell you a NFT for $5K or an 8x10 for $50" because the whole thing is a joke. With one exception I know of, the NFT purchaser gets a jpeg and zero rights to it.
@AbandonedAmerica @a it's that blank wall thing I mentioned. Maybe folks are just conditioned to not see them. And yes the social media stream is ambivalent as they see art, but don't think of it out of that context (and if it's on the internet it's free!).
Maybe we need.to bill ourselves as retro, like vinyl :P
Granted, our house is salon-style and *mostly* my works and we acquire when we're able, but most folks wouldn't hang the bulk of my serious work
@AbandonedAmerica @a heh. It just came back in mind that (caveat I don't push to friends & my website eats ass,.and not in the good way) I'm pretty sure I could have had the entire cost of our holiday cards, to the tune of $200+ but not a print sale in 2022
~we started 5-6 years ago sending out holiday cards to some extent anyone that wants one. Like, 4x6 print quality signed free art. And we gotta keep doing it. A lot of people look forward to it, and some people it's the only card they'll get