I've gotten into a habit of listening to the Art & Story podcasts. They have me thinking like crazy, have my hands itching to work on Elementalists (despite having two comic projects which MUST GET DONE right now), and have me making weird faces at my desk as I intermittently laugh or scowl.
One of the topics Jerzy brings up several times (forgive me if he's adapted his thoughts since then. I'm only up to 15 out of 200 old podcasts…) is this idea that, "Oh, I feel bad because my work in undervalued, but then I think, 'I'm doing this for myself! I'm happy with that!' And I push past it!".
That's not a quote, by the way. It's a summary. But I finally realized why, despite my feelings of empathy towards this sentiment (I finally broke out of a clinical depression that clung onto me for half this year…), that I feel a little agitated each time this topic comes up (and it comes up a LOT). Saying that 'it's okay, I'm doing this for myself', would be FINE if you were working in a medium that you get the personal satisfaction from.
I sit at a grinding arbor and work on a gemstone for the full course of a day, and whip my face and go, "look at this SWEET cabochon!" My husband pats me on the head and goes, "that's nice, honey." And it is, because I now have a little beautiful stone I can do ANYTHING with. And it's MINE. But a little gemstone, or a table, or a skirt or a CAKE is different, and her's why: they are CONSUMABLE OBJECTS. They are not a STORY.
A story is made to be given or told or SHOWN to another human being. If you toss aside the dialogue between you and the reader, then you're fundamentally tossed away something important. And I know I used to do this, and I think my acknowledgment of this has actually made me a BETTER artist over time. We should cherish even the person who reads for two seconds and says, "okay," because THEY READ. The comic exists to be read, to be seen. If you live to just look at it yourself, you've fundamentally failed.
A desire for others to find enjoyment and meaning from what you've created isn't vain or silly or NEEDY, it's just the NATURE of what you've made. To shirk that off to try and make yourself feel better for a failure to connect runs the risk of making that gap wider in the future.
The art style itself was created for this purpose. We don't do harsh lines and simplified styles for no reason: these were adapted over to time to work hand in hand with reproduction technologies available. The first 'mass produced' comics were woodblocks, and then combinations of metal etchings with variable type machinery, and later lithography and printing presses. The point was alway the same: to show 'art and writing stories' to as many people as POSSIBLE.
I'm sure Jerzy and Mark understand this because they both create amazing, inviting comics of their own, but I felt the need to reply to their understatement.
/ end soapbox
Me: "Man, I feel the need to make lots of links back to them as apology for me ranting against them…"
AlmightyM: "lol! You're not ranting against them. You're offering and alternate view!"
Me: *nods* Though, I feel like it's almost more of a footnote than an alternate view.
an addendum...
an addition
an asterisk
all these a-words, wow
AlmightyM: lol!
Me: an aside... and, to boot, all these synonyms are ALITERATIVE hehe
/end silly after thoughts
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