I always think something like, “It’s none of my business.”
This is… kind of hard for me to pull apart because it’s something I’m pretty well bombarded with on a daily basis, and sometimes I’m not as good at dealing with it as I wish I was.
I mean obviously that kind of apathy is tough. Because you do care. You can’t help it. You don’t want to separate yourself from your art. It’s YOUR art. Everyone—especially artists, who put themselves out there in a way that’s immediately subject to the most casual, callous judgement from people who are not experts and not sympathetic to you—everyone cares about what other people think. And it hurts if someone says something cruel or needlessly critical about you or about what you’re doing.
But the fact that people can be so casually judgmental is exactly what makes their reactions none of your business. Because you are not their investment. It’s literally not their work, time, skill, or happiness. They don’t know you from Adam. Everything that you used to make that art—your feelings, your experiences—belongs to you and only you. The only thing haters can do is use themselves as the tool with which they judge.
I care more about my art than anyone ever will. You know? That’s a fact. Haters and critics will never hate what I do as much as I love what I do. They just won’t. They will never be me. They will never know what it’s like to be me. They cannot hate more than I love.
So whatever someone says or does is really, truly none of my business.
Haters will hate, and people will always use art as something onto which they project themselves—they will always do this. That’s part of the definition of art.
But it’s none of your business. You’re in the business of being yourself for yourself. No one else can touch that.
Practice saying it. “It’s none of my business.”
Tag: art
this is probably my favourite comic of all time jsyk
can someone explain this to me?
Sure thing! For convenience I’ll refer to the guy with his arms in his pockets as SG (shorter guy) and the one on the computer as TG (taller guy).
In the first panel, SG sees TG playing on the computer and is disappointed. SG puts a lot of value in the idea of “making things,” specifically “art,” and thinks TG is just wasting their time
So he asks them if they wouldn’t rather be “making something” instead of just playing games and listening to music, implying that TG isn’t doing anything worthwhile or creative with their time
But TG replies that “interpreting is generative,” meaning that even if they spend their time just doing fun stuff, the mere act of enjoying something is creating an experience and an interpretation. Talking about something, dancing to music or sharing a piece of art with your friends IS “making something,” and each of those can be worthwhile and artistic.
SG leaves, complaining he “can’t be an auteur of [interpretation].” Auteur is a movie term that refers to a filmmaker with artistic control and vision enough to be considered essentially the singular creator of the resulting work of art. Turns out, SG doesn’t just want to “make things,” he wants to make things he and others see as “important.” He wants to make art not for the sake of art, but for the sake of being recognized and praised for his art.
This comic really speaks to elitism within the artistic community, the idea that art needs to meet certain standards to be considered art. SG’s viewpoint is really traditionalist, that art need to be “approved” and validated in order to be considered “really art;” while TG recognizes that art can be as little as just talking about what you love.
TLDR: Art is for everyone, not just some sort of social “artistic elite.”
ooh i love the explanation
Aw Yiss 