dA continued
Let's see if we can be 'civil'.

Initial;

Something like a disclaimer:

I have something to say, you don't have to care, listen, or even read it.

Yeah, I'm using public space. Frequented space. I admit freely I want to be heard. I freely admit I'm bitching.

No, this is not about the 304rage that's been running rampant. It a sequence of thoughts, points, and opinion(s).

Have some mostlyraw:

We're all just feeding off each other. Of course, that's more than generalized. We're feeding off the media, the fashions, the next new thing, each other. It's just that much more apparent, probably, in the online world. You see something you like, take it and add it to something. Like that odd star you saw on a creature's shoulder? That pose, with the needles? How about that triangular mask, with the three hatch-marks? Take it, use it--second thoughts or not.

I'm no exception, heh, are you kidding? Neither are you, most likely. Want to see? You can watch me and Akurei feed off each other--we've been doing it for quite the time, since ninth grade. Picking at each other's quirks, subconciously and not. The occassional stroke over the ribs, the rounded fur. Yeah, I'm naming names--not to start a war, but it point out the reality. Look at the similarities my art took on to Push Tyber's last year. It wasn't as bad as they thought it was, but that doesn't make it any better. edit: [deleted] Let your friends get away with it, for any number of reasons. Choose not to see. Choose not to care. Either way, it's probably all of us at some point or another, subconciously or not. None of that makes it any more "right". Should we privately solve these things, or leave them to the public? Is there any choice in the matter, really? Can we leave it to the discretion? You can't and shouldn't go around policing the world, although I'm sure some would care to differ.

Something I'm trying to say, but Akurei says it better:
"...an artist is extremely talented, and has a unique style. And that's great, because different is interesting, and really holds you eye. Different can be interesting, even without being appealing, really. But when an artist becomes too 'influenced', or whatever euphemism you want to use, their art just... drops, somehow. Yeah, they're still amazing, but they've lost a certain quality, and their art is... empty, somehow. Influence drains the artist, just pushes them off into the hazy backdrop of fellow 'trend followers'; skilled though they may be, their work doesn't really hold one's eye or attention, not like it did before."

But it's so hard to pin down on anyone, much less point it out. When someone does it to you, it just gnaws and gnaws away at you. It limits, discredits, causes the most stupid and insidious things. Ruins friendships, makes enemies. Makes you sick, even--suddenly, you don't feel like sharing anything more than you have to. I love sharing my work, but I don't like having to feel the fear of waiting to see some popular, particular aspect show up in the next dozen, not knowing whether they're intruding or whether it's a coincidence. It's hard to post anything even slightly personal, or containing a personal symbol because it's so hard to see it thrown on something else, when they don't know what it means. Nobody owns the crosshair target, much less the crescent moon, and I'm not trying to. It's the context that gives it away--an example of context being a red crescent moon being used in tandem with some sort of masked, draconic creature on a vague background. I don't know about the rest of you, but I try my best to not say anything for the most part if, and when, I see it, and only in self-defense or discussion. So much for that, right? Hello, soapbox world. I'm free game. It's so hard to pin down, 1) because it for all one knows, it could be a coincidence, the benefit of the doubt. We tend to think up a lot of the same things, and have the same appeals, 2) it's still all so relative and subjective anyway. The "art" world is nothing so direct like numbers and simple lines of code, it's eye of the beholder, if you'll allow me to throw a cliche that way. You can't measure influence in clean cut units, or even begin to estimate without assuming. Other times, you can't place in words what you're seeing that you feel so violated by, or maybe you dismiss it with something along the lines of "that's just the way it is". Then there's the indelible drama running rampant. Let's all tell each other to screw off and hang, because that'll solve everything. Let's rally an army and start a flame war.

Let's not even start throwing the word "original" around the board. So-called "celebrity status". Right.

This doesn't have to be a snarky bitch-fest, and it doesn't have to tear people apart. Let's have an incentive for peace, not war. I'll be civilized from here on out if you will.

This isn't a completed essay, or argument, much less a fully expressed thought. Let's talk, let's not. There's a thousand questions just waiting to riot, among other things. Let's stop, think, and propose what might, could, and can be done, if anything. Let's ask some of those questions, so we can start to get a picture. Challenge, concur, and everything inbetween.

87 in | myxomatosis