Artists value creativity above all else and perceive the world in terms of possibilities rather than as a fixed and immutable paradigm for living.
Artists are generally more open-minded and accommodating of individuality than far too much of the general public.
Artists also tend to be far more sensitive to the ineffable qualities of life and being human, and as such, have far broader perspectives on life than most of the general public.
Artists have fewer restrictions in their thinking patterns, allowing them to perceive much of what is invisible to much of the population.
Artists thrive in nuance, subtlety, complexity, and abstraction while much of the population finds such things overwhelming or unworthy of attention.
Artists value self-expression in ways that often create discomfort for many who prefer to ignore complex issues or ideas.
Artists excel in providing the world with mirrors to observe and understand itself better. In contrast, much of the world is transfixed on imagery they would never otherwise imagine.
An artist can spend hours watching an ant’s activity while marveling at its purpose, whereas most people view that as a waste of time.
Artists can be moved by sounds, colours, words, ideas, or expressions that most would otherwise ignore or be dismissive toward.
Artists often live apart from the human societies they occupy, but are usually more human than those human societies.
Artists are also far more emotionally vulnerable than most people, which makes them viewed as prey by predators. Still, they are also far more potent than those predators when they realize that the source of their strength and vulnerability is the same.
This post is a response to a question posed in its complete format: “Are people taking Chat GPT answers and posting them on Quora? It seems there are many answers all with the same format every time, and sometimes people post the same answer twice. It is very annoying. How can this be stopped?”
There appears to be less of that behaviour today than about a year ago when ChatGPT became a public sensation.
AI-generated content has generally been easy to spot, and I’ve blocked several accounts where people have tried passing off AI content as their own. It may be for that reason I see less of it.
People may also have become more discerning with their inclusions of AI-generated text — by removing obvious clues and editing the content before posting it. ChatGPT has also evolved and become more sophisticated and less easy to spot.
I use Grammarly to speed up my writing and clean up errors, but I still struggle with its structure as it “suggests” changes that are not natural expressions to me.
My experience with it has affected my writing by improving it and relenting on choices I would not have made. I’m unsure how I feel about that beyond feeling a bit dirty in accepting a suggestion out of expedience rather than rewriting an entire paragraph to make it acceptable.
I will fight more vigorously against Grammarly on my desktop than on my phone because typing — especially editing- can be a pain.
Grammarly can generate content from existing text by rewriting it in a more grammatically acceptable (not always correct) format. This makes it somewhat different than the content generated by ChatGPT and other AI LLMs used for content generation.
There also exists AI systems that are designed to spot AI-generated content, of which I am sure many are included within academic budgets. I noticed recently, however, that new AI systems are emerging that claim to be capable of passing muster on being scrutinized by AI detection systems.
Whether those are effective or not, I don’t know. Still, I suspect this will continue to be an evolving issue where it will become impossible to differentiate between human-generated and AI-generated content.
For my part, it seems like I’m being encouraged to cuss more frequently to ensure people understand that they are reading words produced by a human mind over that of a “robot,” but that may be an excuse with a limited shelf life.
This post is a response to a question posed in its complete format: “How does the function of art as a means of personal expression differ from its role as a reflection of cultural and societal values?”
We are each of us mirrors of our cultural and societal values.
Each of us expresses our values as we have been exposed to and have absorbed them into our makeup as individuals, whether we do so through work defined as “art” by society or by other means of self-expression.
Some common ways we recognize different cultures include dialects, cuisine, wardrobe, rituals, and social activities such as special occasions, holidays, and celebrations of varying kinds.
We typically define “art” as an experience without a pragmatic application beyond conveying an emotional or intellectual concept.
Most forms of expression serve a pragmatic value, such as organizing people, educating people, helping people accomplish goals, or restraining, hurting, preventing, or prohibiting people from engaging in an undesirable action.
The purpose of art is purely to share perspectives while the artist in society focuses their attention and development precisely upon developing one’s perspective through their work.
Most people rely on their expressions as a secondary, supportive, and functional concern as an adjunct to whatever their primary occupation is for their attention.
Everyone expresses their cultural and social values by being unique products of their environment. The artist “enters a meta state” of introspection while analyzing values to convey them through their unique perspectives.
Like physicists who focus on the physical characteristics of the universe, medical professionals who focus on the biological characteristics of humanity, psychologists who focus on the mental states of humanity, and geologists who focus on the mineral characteristics of the planet, artists focus on our cultural expressions of the human condition.
Artists are professional analysts for our societies who reflect the varying states of humanity through their expressions.
This post is a response to a question posed in its complete format: “How do I cope with feeling creatively stifled in art school? At 23, after years of studying and currently master’s, I feel blocked and discouraged. Despite my talent, constant negative feedback has left me stuck & numb. How can I regain my passion?”
Try to think of the constant negative feedback as callous-building. It won’t stop. The more success you find, the more negative feedback you will get.
Your artistic process is your means of enduring and overcoming that feedback. Let it feed your resolve to continue pursuing what matters to you in your artwork.
Allow your process and product to teach you about yourself because that’s the value of creative endeavours.
Learn what you can from the masters who came before you. Let their struggles and discoveries inspire you to explore new realms of creativity.
Let the voices of the living critics wash over you like the daily elements confronting you, whether a cold chill from a frosty wind or a downpour of hail. Your creative process can turn all that effort at weakening you into a strength that helps you push past the boundaries limiting your potential.
Learn to read between the lines of the negativity directed your way because you will discover that most of them are projections driven by fear and envy.
People not intimidated by you have no need or compulsion to be negative. People who are not driven by fear and self-loathing see no point in anything outside objective honesty when expressing their views. People who care and are considerate of your personhood will try to choose words to support you, even if they see a need to correct an error of yours.
Since you are underway in a Masters level program in the Arts, you are well underway in securing yourself a somewhat economically stable future that will permit the continued development of your artwork throughout your life.
Upon completing your graduate degree, you will be eligible for teaching positions that may or may not interest you now but will allow you to remain current within your profession.
I would have jumped at an opportunity to complete my own Masters degree for that very reason, and so this may be a bias of mine. I think there can be no greater pleasure than to share one’s love with those who come after.
They can become sources of inspiration for you that break self-limiting boundaries. I also wanted the opportunity to be the opposite of many of my toxic instructors. They would cut me down in person but always visit my studio when I wasn’t around. I was informed of that oddly conflicting behaviour by studio mates who seemed excited for me.
I didn’t understand that then, but I interpreted that dichotomy in their behaviour as a backhanded form of compliment.
You will discover that your passion is like a barometer keeping you on track and focused in the direction that your art is taking you. It is like a guide for your life to facilitate your growth and achieve your potential.
Your passion will flow in waves that lap the edges of your consciousness amid exciting discoveries and recede when formulaic repetition asserts itself.
Whenever I feel blocked, uninspired, or unmotivated to focus on creating developed pieces, I turn to processes borrowed from the technique of automatic writing. The deliberately unconscious transcription of words and mark-making function like a form of callisthenics to “loosen up the creative muscles.”
I have learned that the thrill of discovery is the key to stoking one’s passions. Nothing is more awe-inspiring than looking at a piece one has finished and wondering how it could have come from within.
If you can keep surprising yourself, you will never lose your passion. You will always be motivated to explore what lies beyond your horizon.
This is a fundamental truth of the human condition. The wonder of discovery makes life worthwhile and raises us all as a species out of the darkness of a primitive existence to touch the stars.
thotbag 