Answering Questions About Art

[@kingsting12]

Missed the stream because I wasnt up at 4 in the morning, but thank you for making it. Your rough map for Art has been extremely helpful to me, and I've made more artistic progress in the last two months than I got done in half a year.

[@thepursuitofecstasy1546]

Alternate account so I can write an unnecessary stream of consciousness: The only thing more painful than making art is not making art. This makes me very, very sad because there was a time when making art made me happy. I remember reading a book a few years ago that talked about the things you describe: that you have to threaten yourself with losing money in order to stave off procrastination, that you'll want to quit and that feeling is natural, that the desire to create art is a disease. And I literally threw that book in the trash because I just couldn't fathom how someone could not love making art, and frankly, it scared me. I loved the physical and mental act of oil painting, of drawing, of wood burning, of writing a poem. It was the only thing in my depressing life that made me happy, and the thought of not feeling that way anymore was just too awful for my brain to even engage with. But gradually, something sickening started to happen. I had a few successful pieces for the first time. And they were specifically the pieces that had really tortured me to make. Things that my advisors had beaten me over the head with criticism for, or things that I had redone and slaved over again and again until I was too afraid of failure to enjoy them anymore, or things that were about such dark topics that I felt ashamed of making them. They were better than my other work, no doubt, no getting around it. And the pieces that I had actually enjoyed making? I realized they weren't any good. I don't know how I never noticed it before, but the stuff that I liked to paint or draw was very trite and cliché and not even technically well done. I felt like I was in a horror movie. The work that I actually enjoyed making had never once been good, it was just fun because it was totally uninhibited, like this stream of consciousness (which is also not very good, for the record). As soon as I actually put my mind to it enough to do well, I hated making art. And that's where I'm at now. I've embraced that art is the only thing I'm good at, and that when I'm good at it, I hate doing it, and when I love doing it, I'm not any good at it. And yet I WANT to make what's genuinely good. I do have those brain worms. I do have something to say. If I don't say it, I'll just be a little nothing writhing around on the ground and my life will have been in vain, and will be painful regardless. Anyway, that's why I'm going back to art school at a realist atelier. I'll let you know how it works out! :D

[@MrAaaaazzzzz00009999]

I never would've thought that the guy who I watched in 2020 for those funny political meme videos was actually an art guru that I just now only realized after becoming an artist 2 years ago. before I kept wondering what was his political motive, or true identity behind that satire. Now I see the simple answer.

[@dreamcorners]

i don't want to write a third comment about my experience making art... however i will just say i really appreciate you talking about and making these videos because as an artist personally i feel this stuff is very very rarely talked about in the way you talk about it. the only times i've ever been able to hear someone talk about things insightfully like this was when i've talked with other artist friends of mine about these kinds of topic, it feels like a lot of this stuff is just 'unspoken' and avoided and people don't like talking about it... and by the way, any advice to struggling artists (including myself), the only way... is just to do things, just do it, just do the thing, that's the only way you're gonna figure it out and be happy with yourself. be constructive but don't overthink it..

[@dreamcorners]

by the way musique concrete and serialism are two particular different methodologies for musical composition, musique concrete in particular is a technique that developed as recorded music started being a thing.. its basically working with recorded audio as the 'material' for composition (to put it most simply), back in the 50s and 60s people would do it by cutting up analogue tape to make sound collages etc... serialism is a different framework, as it is much more theoritical and it's a bit difficult to explain in layman's terms.. however i recommend listening to Theodor W. Adorno's String Quartet (1921).. hope that helps!

[@sosavoa]

thanks for the answer bro i think i'm under the assumption that to "be an artist", you have to have a message or idea in mind that you're trying to comminucate Every Time. talking to some artist friends I know, apparently this is not the case. it kind of baffles me, because all the art I consume has a message, and even the art my friends make seem to have messages behind them. i guess it's literally all in my head. for the bit about atomization vs having a community: me and my art friends are actually starting a little group collective community thing! where we all kind of meet and bond about it. so, i guess I have it better than many again, thanks for the answer and wish me luck in my stupid weird journey. i am now making art B)

[@redder0118]

'because all the art I consume has a message, and even the art my friends make seem to have messages behind them', a lot of the time, for me personally, if i'm writing something, words or not, it comes out in its best state when i don't think about it. later when i look back at it, i can find meaning in it, which seems much clearer than when i wrote it. i think it's like that, but we all have different interpretations, that's clear to us.

[@sosavoa]

@@redder0118 relinquishing control like that sounds... painful. the instinct i experience is to have complete control over both the art I make and the message others interpret from it, but the more I learn about the nature of making art, the more i hear that it's absolutely not up to the artist what interpretation people (even oneself) takes from the art. i guess that's at least part of what the pain of making art is. it's a terrifying thought, putting my thoughtless self up for external interpretation.

[@redder0118]

@@sosavoa i have nothing to say, but, yup! although personally, i used to be like you, thinking everything should have set meanings, but im starting to change. in ways, it's more freeing, as the interpretation is not up to you.

[@jeffreycanfield1939]

oh hey my question was first :)) thank you for providing your input!

[@oneeyemoon7789]

Greg how do you feel about "Party Hard" by Andrew K? Ultimate party song by a guy who doesn't party. It rocks. Hard

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

An artist is somewhat who makes art. Art is something made by an artist. It's as simple as the definition of a bus and a bus driver, really. (Which means, not simple at all.)

[@normanclatcher]

An island is land surrounded by water. On all sides, by a sea.

[@oneeyemoon7789]

This is good. More please

[@thatoneguy07]

Good job jreg! You sure showed those…. Wait where am I jreg? Why did you put me in this place jreg?

[@prince-jordy]

thanks for answering the question! this was really interesting and thought provoking. I really enjoy the way you discuss art and engage with talking about it and expressing ideas regarding it so hearing more of your thoughts just made me have a lot of new thoughts of my own :)

[@Platformdestroyer]

I have been following your map. Thank you 😊 do you think learning other languages helps strengthen complexity within a piece of art?

[@vivianellis9298]

Were you referring to Jonas Mekas?

[@SoVidushi]

Missed it :/

[@metamodern409]

JACOB COLLIER (not with the French “er” lol) also serialism is 12-tone rows don’t worry about it musical minimalism a la Reich is more enjoyable and harmonious; serialism is often criticized for being more for the page than for the ear

[@squarrot9355]

i need your poetry

[@claireschweizer4765]

Jacob Collier is a perfect example 😂😂😂😭😭💀

[@TellYourFriends]

at the beginning were you talking about Caveh????

[@boongus6315]

had no idea my bestest friend greg responded

[@seagullattic6792]

You stream at the most ungodly hours >:(

[@planetforweirdos]

☄ai☄art☄

[@Ppxl88]

I define art as any means of expression outside of mundane cultural conventions of relay

[@normanclatcher]

There is art to small talk.

[@Ppxl88]

@@normanclatcher give me an example of what you mean? People say theres art to doing any work, but at the end of the day, they're doing something productive which is prohibited by art.

[@normanclatcher]

@@Ppxl88 it's a matter of nuance, the way I see it. If you're aware to the terms you're using, or supply automatically, you can help shape attitudes and perceptions of a place. "How has your day been?" for instance carries much more of a business casual vibe than "How's it going?" or the terser/warier "How are things?" There's a lot you can do with it, if you see it as a game to be played rather than simply an obstacle to overcome or a necessary consequence or function of society.

[@Ppxl88]

@@normanclatcher But shaping attitudes is something productive. It's then a manipulative technique (using the word manipulate in the non-derogatory sense). However if we want to mundanely shape attitudes, we WOULD NOT make a song or video or painting, so these are considered art. If small talk can count as art, then any expression can be art.

[@normanclatcher]

@@Ppxl88 It's not quite what I'm trying to say. The act of small talk itself often isn't an art, but it is a means by which art can be employed, if done consciously. It is a medium, similar to the canvas of a painting or the brutalist structure of a modern museum. It does not call attention to itself because its function is formative first. Known (or unknown) by its achieved effects of subtle psychology, secondary to crafts done with aesthetic purposes in mind. Not precisely lesser tho.

[@dreamcorners]

why jreg? why?

[@Very_Silly_Individual]

Greg's non ironic side is kinda weird to see.

[@_va3y]

Bruh, do you even understand that the ai is not in ppls phones, it’s like in Google datacenters. How on earth are you gonna do it??????? Are you out of mind, how’s it gonna fix the problem???