I created this website as a form of "anti-social" media that harkens back to the days where everyone made a website with custom HTML.
Sure, it wasn't polished, but it didn't have to be. That was the mark of a real person with their own tastes and level of skill with coding and design.
We live in a world now where we post content as fast as possible for the smallest shred of validation, and we latch onto other people's opinions about topics
in order to stay popular, and at other times, so we aren't persecuted for what we say. Internet drama, as silly as it is, has the potential to ruin lives;
it puts unneeded pressure on people to carefully monitor every action in order to not offend someone.
The Starving Artist and the Need to be an Internet Sensation
Among the people who get the worst end of the deal when it comes to internet notability are artists. The very nature of our craft is contradictory to
the new trend of instantly-gratifying content. The way the internet prioritizes half-baked, constantly manufactured, and at times nonsensical content makes it impossible
for people such as small artists to get a foothold. The only artists that seem to make it are the popular, well-established ones. If I, in my infinite obscurity, could make a change to the internet, I'd change it back to being a place of the people where
diverse ideas and marks can be made. Because right now, the internet is very corporation-friendly in a way that undermines freedom of expression, which inherently
includes art.
Anti-Social Media
No man is an island, they say, but I'm not here to be an island. This website is not for professional purposes aside from if anyone wants to ask me
for a commission. It's ugly because, much like some guy in the 90's - early 2010s, I wanted a custom website, but was a layman in coding. So, I let my imagination run
wild and made this website full of ugly charm. Its purpose is to provide a basic profile of me, show the artworks I feel good enough about to display, among completely
optional extras. Unlike social-media, you're not having to look through my disorganized wall of reposts and original posts to find a human. It's right there on the front page.
Much like Zombocom, you can do anything you want here. My house is your house. If you want, I'll even make you a gallery page free of charge and include it on my site.
I am a real person claiming my spot on the internet. Our lives do not have to be dictated by the interests of a corporation we may not even buy products from. My cause my be lost,
but I'm not stopping. Life needs to be worth living.
The Menace of he NFT
We've all heard of NFTs. However, quite a few people know what they are. I'm no expert on them, and I don't want to be, but if nothing is done to regulate them
or change how they operate, artists may have to partake to survive. Art has always had a struggle with accessibility, however, since the advent of the computer with
painting software, drawing is more accessible now than it ever was; however, this only concerns the making of art. Anyone with a mouse can open MS Paint to draw a picture; our problem
is that this is happening all over the internet and people are making hundreds of thousands of dollars! All of this is happening while people who specialize in making art are
going without commissions because of frankly, genius marketing. If a marketplace can be created that sells nothing but worthless PNGs than anyone can save with a right-click
and people are willing to pay thousands of dollars for such images, you must be a very good salesman.
The people who buy NFTs are primarily concerned with holding onto it so it can appreciate in value. The item is tokenized on a blockchain which keeps a record of who owns
that specific image. They are bought and sold with the cryptocurrency Ethereum, which as of right now, is worth approximately $4000 CAD per coin and is unfortunately harmful
to the environment. We hear a lot about how NFTs are harmful for the environment, but what a lot of us don't know is how. Minting an NFT uses up a small-country's worth of energy
and requires a warehouse of servers with access to the blockchain. Mining cryptocurency also requires a lot of energy, with the computers designed for the task only lasting
1.5 to 2 years before being discarded.
Another problem with NFTs concerning how they affect artists is the rampant art-theft problem. Anyone can save any image and mint it as an NFT, don't think your art is immune.
This is the reason why I post my art on here as thumbnails. No pesky monkey-peddler is going to make money off of my art. The lengths people will go to to make a buck are endless
and scary. The NFT market is completely unregulated and is making an already-hard internet experience for artists even harder. Please support the artists you love.
Buy a commission, you'll be helping someone develop their career and you are getting a very nice piece of art made just for you for a much lower price. Such a deal doesn't
need more marketing than a statement when compared to NFTs.
