#artist thoughts

[frogcroaks]

I've kept this blog mostly as a faceless drawing account, but I feel like at this point I should talk more about art related things I believe in. right now, I've been more and more annoyed by the way artists approach merch and their reactions to criticism

First of all, and I'll be blunt: the entitlement towards cheap global south labor from indie artists is insane. You can place whatever marginalized identity in your shop, it does not give you the free pass to hire manufacturers that refuse to inform you about the wages and labor protections of their workers. If the only way that you can do x product is like that, then you don't deserve to have x product as a merch option.

Enamel pins, makeshift plushies, acrylic stands, shitty tshirts and apparel... why is our community filled with dropshipping slop whos production involves labor abuses and environmental damage? why are we constantly playing dumb to these manufacturers being shady and then getting surprised they get in labor scandals? why are we coddling artists that its ok to exploit others for profit because a smol bean who just has no choice or responsibility ever?

If you aren't making your merch by hand or making sure the people making it for you are being paid properly, then you should get another job.

[bjeol]

This one was from almost a year ago aswell. I think sometimes I have a little shame sharing my old art because in my head its kinda old news, like "bro, okay. That was forever ago. Who cares?" But I think I should kinda get over that because nobody says to stop talking about or apreciating the starry night (not at all saying I'm van gogh at all, hahah) .

Moral of the story is, if its good work I'm still proud of a year later, I shouldn’t be embarrassed to share it again.

[mandarinaart]

Most of the days I feel like I lost so much time because I am afraid to start something and fail. But I got to give myself some credit because I try everyday and I think there is value in that.

And what if I fail ? It's okay, every start is a new opportunity to do it better.

( giving a ted talk to myself)

[theartsharki]

I love drawing stuff just for me. Not posting it anywhere, not sharing the art with my friends. It’s a good time.

Took me five years to break the habit of just making art to post. 

Yippee!

[teahermitcomics]

Guys there’s too many things to drawwww and not enough hours in the dayyyyyyyyy

I wanna draw ships - I wanna draw Mignon and Doc, I wanna draw BloodyMary, I wanna draw Jayvik, I wanna draw Ghoulcy,

I wanna draw my darling Geraldine and Ewan!!! What the fuck is their ship name we need to come up with one while I faff about thumbnailing Cup 11 :T

[bad-d0gg]

I’ve got a hold of him 😼

Original image:

[iamokay13]

In my opinion, from my views, to conform to the usage of saying that sports like figure skating and ballet are feminine is disrespectful to both what it is to be feminine and art in itself.

The usage of 'feminine' or 'queer' or 'gay' comes from people (usually men and then the other people that follow that line of thinking because they want to seem superior) who don't understand art so they fit it into their boxes.

It goes in the pipeline thinking of to be artistic is to be beautiful which means it's frivolous, which makes it feminine because you know, women are vain. It's why when cheerleading was predominantly male-dominated, it was seen as prestigious and elite. Women took over cheerleading during WWII and now it doesn't have that same kind of standard because women are undervalued.

The thing is, the people in art are also very misogynistic and have prejudice. Women for centuries also had to conform to the idea of what was expected of them. I think art for us would've looked much different if we had been allowed to do what we wanted to do. Not that I don't see any value in what we currently have because I still think it's amazing how people are able to express themselves even when restrained.

Art has no constraints. Sometimes it just is. To give an example, glitter is feminine because girls and women mostly wear it. But not all usage of glitter is feminine. A designer might use sequins and glitter so the costume will shine and glimmer under the lights, glueing everybody's eyes on the performer. It's not because they wanted to break gender stereotypes although it wouldn't be wrong if that was their intention.

In art there's ambiguity. And what is concrete is instead quality, beauty and most importantly thought and connection.