teen dream meme queen

I say this as someone who sells pottery, and many people who see my art assume I am using art as an outlet to “express myself.”

I am not.

I use art to challenge myself. A lot of what I do is the equivalent of doing a hard sudoko or a half marathon, answering the question of “can I do this?”

I use art to question things and explore ideas. Finding physical synthesis between concepts and working out a design to its end state.

I use art to make money. I make some things just because I suspect they’ll sell well, and I keep making them when they do.

This idea that an artist is “putting themselves out there” every time they create is not only stupid, but harmful, and it kills critique and analysis.

Yes every creative work is influenced by its creator, but the most preliminary step of analysis is to define the purpose of a work of art (functional, narrative, entertainment, persuasive, decorative, ceremonial, etc.) and a vanishingly small percentage of that is self-expression. Even then, it’s generally tied to the self’s relationship with something else—perception, society, etc.

It’s very tiresome to have people assume they know you because they like (or dislike) your art, to make assumptions about who you are and how you approach the world. It’s nothing new— people called the Impressionists insane and the Fauvists degenerate. And now people are expected to hand out their identities and traumas to prove they have the right to explore certain subjects.

Because artistic expression can be incredibly deep or maybe not, but the point is it’s not usually about the artist’s self.

It doesn’t need to be about the self to be meaningful.

Hell, so much of the art made by humans throughout history is religious, and deeply meaningful, and for most of human history across the world, religious art is very much not tied to the self.

Really the first time we get a visual art movement that’s strongly linked to the self is Surrealism—and not even all Surrealists! de Chirico was engaging with metaphysics and Nietzsch more than his own psyche (okay he’s kind of a proto-surrealist but still.)

What’s frustrating for me is that people look at or engage with art—especially art they don’t understand—and instead of thinking about its purpose, it’s place in history, and the ideas it’s trying to grapple with, they assume the art must be about the artist. That everything is personal and tied to the artist’s emotions and inner life.

It’s such a narrow point of view to approach art with. Especially since many artists write about how and why they make things the way they do. You can approach things with your own critical reasoning or just read! What they wrote! About their art!

I’m glad this post has resonated, and a lot of people do get what I’m trying to say. It’s good, I’m glad they do.

Over 500 years spent trying to cut down a whole trunk of human culture.

he looks SO shocked and taken aback and goes “what did you just say? how do you know my name?” so i sit there for a moment trying to figure out what the fuck he is talking about, and then go, “…. bitch?” and he looks so relieved and tells me his name is mitch.

I saw this when running newpipe. But wait, it gets deeper. I clicked on the details buttons and it said as of today, we have 83 days left until Google rolls out this new requirement for apps inside and outside of the google play store. If any developer disagrees with their new terms and fees, they will be blocked!

I'll share some of the info below:

Looks like they're trying to nuke the remaining privacy and freedoms we have left on the internet.

What to do?

-Get your developer friends to not comply to their new guides

- Sign the open letter on the site and take action by checking out the full resources list on their website as well!

To summarize, this is all daunting especially when you feel all alone with unfair and inhumane regulations comming out faster than improvements but we got this working together!

Share the link with your friends, family and anyone who will listen!