July 30, 2024

Content creation

Content is not art. Content is a category invented by (mostly) social media platforms who would like us to make stuff that engages people long enough on their platform to sell advertising to. Content is about feeding a machine of views, likes, and shares in the hope that, in return, the content creator gets rewarded – with an audience, with some ad revenue, with a sponsorship deal. Content is abstract, generic, unimportant. Content takes from the soul, it doesn’t feed it.

Art is not content. Art is something that no company invented. Art doesn’t have a market-purpose. Art is self-expression – using tools in the physical world to help us understand more about ourselves for no one else’s benefit but our own. Occasionally, that expression and exploration benefits others – mostly people searching for answers to the same questions as the artist. Occassionally, because of that connection, art sometimes generates money. But money is not the point of art. Art feeds the soul, and the souls of others. It doesn’t take, it gives.

Neither is right or wrong, it’s just worth reminding oneself occasionally – which one am I actually creating? Which one do I spend more of my time creating?

Other observations
October 1, 2024

Surrounding the idea

Might the act of mark-making be a pathway to the subconscious where we get to meet a version of ourselves we’ve never met before?

September 24, 2024

Feeling useful

Why are there so many people wanting to be published in children’s literature?

September 17, 2024

Abstraction and invitation

What benefits come from leaving room for another human or two to intepret and find meaning in the work we make?

September 10, 2024

The amateur artist

Why do so many kids stop drawing at the age of about 10. And what if they didn’t?

September 3, 2024

Who decides?

Who decides what gets to embed and live continuously in our culture for hundreds of years? And if it does, does it mean it’s good?

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