Screaming into the void

When an artist releases a piece of their work to the world, it is a lot like screaming into the void. You may get feedback either positive or negative. Or you may get nothing. It can be discouraging. The internet these days seems a lot more fatiqued. I have experienced this myself. Many platforms want you to work somehow with nothing in return. Not saying the purpose of that. But the fact that algorithms are incentivized based on this makes it a struggle. Early internet days, no one really thought about this. Nowadays it is more apparent. People know they are training some AI LLM or helping someone else's platform gain more publicity. I believe people have feel had and taken advantage of. This stirs a lot of bad will. This may also be contributed to the enshittification effect. In which a platform or a website like a forum gets worse overtime. Perhaps this has to do with age or the rise of social media. Most likely economic conditions led to this.

When an artist shares their work online, it is incredibly personal. You maybe praised or made fun of. Art has a lot of attributes. People may or may not like your style. They may have an opinion on how you can improve. Maybe you are not asking how to improve and you take offense. You may release work and never hear anything. This could lead one to think they are just a bad artist and no one is interested in your work. In the past, people may share their work in cartoon strips or editorials. More often you would have an editor that would give feedback. Possibly this was tradition as editors had the experienced eye. Maybe they would help. Or some artists may think this could stifle the artists path.

Artists may release stuff for years on different social media platforms. I suggest you release it on your personal website blog. When an artists places it on social media, the algorithm may not show it to that many people. It doesn't mean people aren't interested, but the people the algorithm showed it too just weren't interested into it. You may have spent a lot of time making the piece, but no one saw it.

Even for artists who have a current exhibition they may rely on an art gallery or museum to maintain their exhibition history. This is dangerous. The state of the web is fluid. It could be gone one day. Make sure you document the art you want to share in a way you control. Every artist has to play this game. Many artists may do this for years, decades, maybe their entire lives. Some never using social media. Perhaps this is the best. Why make art worrying what others think. Or maybe you want to improve. Maybe you reach a level you are happy with and just make what you want and share the art you want to. My personal favorite artist is Dr. Seusses Midnight Paintings. Perhaps because I grew up with Dr. Seuss books and it spoke to me on many levels. These paintings he never planned to release until he was deceased. Dr. Seuss made this work speaking on a different level. A level of art for the sake of art. No rhymes, no text, no context. Just the moment. Dr. Seusses art makes me feel different emotions in his work. I highly suggest picked up the book titled The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss by Theodor Geisel. It should be cheap. Maybe rent it from your local library?

Scream into the void. Feel annoyed. Perhaps avoid the void...

About Lars Barnabee 🐝 hey that's me