They said this back in 2016. That a spirit of resistance would move through us and that the political turmoil would become a pressure that turned us into diamonds. That we would gather in speakeasies and make masterworks that would save us. You know what actually happened?
Black art and black artists (and I guess you could extrapolate to nonwhite) became tokenized; the value of our artistic effort measured only by our capacity to mine our trauma or our willingness to soothe white art buyers and commissioners. Soon, it became the only paying work.
Jun 15, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Saw a “here’s a day in the life of a full-time artist” video that 1. Activated the absolute hater in me and 2. Got me thinking about art, wealth, labor and what public-facing artists owe to their audiences. Hang with me here:
My hottest arts take is that if you are an artist who chooses to use your life as supplemental outward-facing content or give advice about living as an artist, you have an ethical duty to disclose how you make your money.
Jan 3, 2018 • 25 tweets • 10 min read
I haven’t been enjoying drawing or sketching or the whole illustration process for a while now. Months, even. I've been itching to find a way to shake it all up.
I got some feedback from a free portfolio review with Mark English. Here's some of my takeaways:
He told me I need to vary my mark-making. He could tell that there was a lack of variety in my work that’s stifling its energy. I agree.
