Hey! I'm trying something different today.
I'm thinking of trying out a new section of the blog where I occasionally give updates about how I'm doing as a creator.
This will be somewhat more personal than the topic posts, but less personal than some of my older material.
I'm still figuring out who I want to be and what I want to do.
As a creator you need to be able to create for yourself as well as for others.
Who am I when it's only me around? Who am I without the screen?
What do I make without an algorithm? What would I do if there was no system?
What do I want to make? What new things do I want to learn? What do I want to try to express?
Something I've been thinking about during this post-AI era is what does creativity mean?
Is art the product or the process?
Can a computer make art?
What happens when we skip to the product? What happens when we become output centered?
And I think that artists learn through creating.
It's not just the final outcome, but the process and struggles that lead to artistic growth.
The person that copies homework answers doesn't fully learn the material. Similiarly, skipping straight to the final product of art means you lose out on the learning of the process.
To create is to bring something to life through your actions.
I told someone once when it comes to social media addiction, you can scroll or create.
Do you want your phone/computer to take your time towards entertainment and mindless scrolling?
Or do you want to give your time back to yourself? To give it towards creating something?
To invest in yourself? To invest in your work? To invest towards your community?
(I'm not perfect either! There's plenty of times I scroll instead of making anything. But I wanted to keep it simple to be easier to remember)
I'm hoping to open membership later this year. I'd like to try Patreon. And YouTube membership eventually.
It'll help support the content and allow me to make more things than I can currently.
In a previous post I mentioned that writing blog posts is like throwing bottles into the ocean.
You never know where it'll end up or if anyone else will ever see it.
At first I was writing to no one. But now there are people here reading these. Thank you!
What I mean by this is Deep Work can be challenging in the attention economy. (The term comes from Cal Newport and his book of the same name.)
Everyone and everything is demanding your attention. Time is money.
But great work often requires Deep Work. Getting in the zone, really focusing on something for long periods of time.
It's not easy. It's not quick. But somebody has to do it.
What would things look like if nobody did Deep Work ever again? If everything was turned into a 30 second TikTok or Short?
Trends come and go. But art? Not content, not slop, full blown art? That can last for generations.
I don't know if anything I may make in the future will earn the title of art.
But I want to keep improving until I feel like I can call myself an artist, not just a content creator.
I'm not looking down on anyone as less artful or anything. I just don't want art itself to become lost in a sea of slop.
First they started with food slop. Junk food. And now it's mental slop. Junk food for the mind.
There's nothing wrong with indulging in it sometimes. But don't forget to eat your veggies and check out some whole grain apps too.
An attempt at a positive reframe. I'm not behind, I'm a late bloomer.
Some people reach their peak early, some reach it fast. Others take a longer time, others are slower.
I might not be 1st, but I'm going at my own pace.
Better late than never.
That's about it for this time. Thanks for reading!
If you'd like to reply to this I have a comment box and a contact email.
If you'd like to support what I do, I have a Ko-fi.