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This is hard to explain because it requires the understanding of what is was like for me to make several feature films for next to no money with a crew of friends who were being paid nothing, but it has become important to me to sometimes create work devoid of any financial consideration. I get asked to make music videos every so often and have not been paid for one in over four years. Which is fine. Doing something with the understanding that it is not a financial transaction, and thus ought to be categorized as āfor the artā forces me to remind myself why I even ostensibly enjoy creating anything in the first place, which is increasingly easy to lose sight of considering the rotten and broken state of the industry in which I have chosen to work.
Apr 26, 2022
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This isnāt to say earning money is bad. Itās very good. Iāve built a career around earning in a lot of different ways. But for me, the ever present capital layer buried in how we package and put ourselves out online, well - kind of ruined why I enjoyed doing it in the first place. I never wanted a full time job, I never wanted to be owned by anyone. Something about having a patreon (it was small, but large enough that I felt, well, owned) was getting in the way of me enjoying the act of making shit. Itās beautiful that online stuff can generate life sustaining income. I just think, we should be making stuff more freely, or just - without the impulse to constantly package and sell ourselves to an audience. Itās gross, and itās bad for the art. Demonetize yourself once n' a while, play games, and be wrong and upset people more.Ā There's nothing to lose when there's nothing to lose!
Mar 17, 2022
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So vulnerable, I have to be sincere. European and American art galleries historically are not only promoters of great art, they are creators of markets. That may be where you could shift focus.
Your worth is that you are young, eating rat, living a life of passion, filth, messiness, body horror (per my comment on such) unique and unknown to those with money. They crave you, not for your art. That's worthless to them. The art, as photographs per Sontag in my other rec, is simply a receipt that they owned a piece of your lifestyle for a moment. No one who will buy your art will likely give a fuck about your art. Stop seeking those. Find the Glengarry Glen Ross customers seeking life, escape from drudgery, a need to prove something to themselves. Let your art be that for them.
Enough bs theory, now for implementation. You won't sell your art, but you can sell the frustration, bloodsweattears, dedication, sacrifice that drips from your post. You can do so by simultaneously reminding yourself you are not creating ART but CREATING art. Your work and worth is not on a canvas. It's not the art. It's in you, the artist.
May 11, 2024
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This is a major brain worm for me. My values in making plays and music are ultimately aligned with small-scale community building, and I hold very closely the idea that the measures of success are the ongoing, mutually beneficial relationships that grow from the initial collaboration. But, my desire is for my play to have a wildly successful run at a well-funded off-broadway theater. My desire is to have an album blow up and make a ton of money and be popular enough to tour on. But values and desires are different things and sometimes not aligned. And at the end of the day I can always say that I stick to my values.... despite those desires also being present.
Anyways, to answer your question...... despite myself, I believe somewhere that my work will only achieve its ultimate goal when it experiences commercial success. Hopefully it does, but at the same time, who cares!!!!!!
Nov 9, 2024
Top Recs from @alex-ross-perry
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I try to enjoy some junk food and drink soda every day, albeit in small quantities. Junk food and especially soda are wonderful treats, and the cultural drubbing they have taken in recent years really is a shame because thereās nothing more rewarding than a daily potato chip snack or perhaps a cold can of Dr. Pepper. They make these little cans of soda that are perfect for this. Herrs potato chips are of course the best, and I have made sure to feature them in many of my movies. Iāve also become fond of these Chippea puffs that are sort of like cheese balls.
Apr 26, 2022
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I will read any book that presents either one specific story or consolidates a broad historical subject into roughly 300 pages and is presented in a paperback measuring like 8.25āx5.5ā. Sometimes these become best sellers so you know the type: Devil in the White City. Killers of the Flower Moon. Things like that. But Iāve started branching out into even more culturally irrelevant subjects that I want to learn about and will probably never find occasion to discuss with anybody else. Two recent hits were Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands (Dan Jones) and Over the Edge of the World: Magellanās Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe (Laurence Bergeren). Please alert me to any recommendations as I am always on the lookout for more!
Apr 26, 2022
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After rehabilitating my backyard a few summers ago, I wanted to reward myself by purchasing some unique and frightening statuary to decorate it with: durable, stone pieces that would thrive outside permanently and look peculiar to neighbors. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is not an especially robust market. The overlap between people who want a Hellraiser Cube made of stone and people who covet investment-piece outdoor dƩcor is apparently me and me alone. However there are a few great etsy stores where I have bought a Cthulhu, a Pazuzu and a Baphomet made of very heavy stone that are still thriving outside among the ivy.
Apr 26, 2022