Maybe I am simply getting older, but these days I often find the entire business of being an artist to be more ambiguous and confusing than it used to be.
A lot of people are saying that the future is in digital and AI augmented art, and whereas I can certainly sit down and learn about these fields I feel very little inclination to do so.
My heart and soul wants to work with paint, not with pixels.
Which brings me to the more important question of feeling authentic about your creativity.
On one hand, I'm definitely interested in being able to sell my artwork in the commercial sense, at least to the point where my art supplies can be funded by my work. Of course, in creating art — at least for me — a great part of the joy lies in being able to share it with other people. Typically, that involves being engaged in some kind of sales activity.
On the other hand, I don't want to be producing "commercial art" in the sense that I am simply following trends because they're popular and happen to be where the money is at the moment.
No disrespect to anybody, but to my eye most NFTs and most digital art hold very little appeal, and as such don't really serve as any point of inspiration for me to want to take on the a angle on creative expression.
And so, I feel a bit stagnant in this changing market, perhaps a little bit like old fashioned typesetters felt when digital type setting and art creation became a reality.
It makes me pause to consider the question of how many of those old-time typesetters learned about computers and took on the new way of doing things, and how many quit the field altogether and instead became home care workers or retail sales clerks.
You put your life into learning a particular art, or skill, or trade, and when it suddenly goes away completely, what is your response?
Not suggesting art is going away, of course, just that certain media seem to be somewhat in the crosshairs.
For the most part, I have always been a rather "wait and see" type of person, so I'm sitting on the fence at this time, watching the whole NFT scenario unfold, why "they" assess whether they're going to head the way of Tulip Bulb Mania or become the backbone of art in the new age.
The jury is still out on that one.
Of course not all digital art is in the form of NFTs and I certainly recognize that. Digital art is here to stay.... they question is whether it will be a niche, or become the new "standard" for artistic creation, with everything else heading towards the proverbial "Warehouse 13."
In a sense, I am now grateful that I never decided to try to become a full-time artist, becoming dependent on selling art for a living. It sounds like a wonderful dream — on some level — but I think I'll leave it be!
Meanwhile, I'd like to shake this sense of stagnancy...
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STOPHi @reddragonfly You brought up some really interesting ideas. My dad was an artist and starving too. Well most of the time he made enough money to pay the bills. Something similar happened in photography and now those that shoot in film are part of a niche group and market. I went digital, lot less expensive than buying and processing all that film.