Let's Talk : Art, Supremacism and Social Media

It should have been the very first post here given how my whole life is driven by Art, but it's a way too complex thing for a simple blog post. Still, let's try to talk about it, to vulgarise it. To give you keys to start your own reflexion.

What is Art? This question might bring back terrible flashback from your philosophical classes. I'm not gonna give a definition of Art 'cause there's as many vision of Arts as there's people, Art is an intimate and personal thing, you cannot put a definition on it because there's as many as there's people. But we're still gonna think about it together because if a question doesn't need a straight answer, it doesn't mean it shouldn't be asked and we shouldn't think about it. Please keep in mind that what I'm about to discuss is is not even enough to give you a proper introduction to Art and everything it's connected to. There's just so much aspects to discuss.

Art was created as a mean to communicate, thus the reason writing was born of it. It's the only factual thing about Art, it was meant to communicate our thoughts. Any thought really, a feeling, an idea, a dream, a simple casual moment, whatever.

Art is Art as long as someone has something to express and express it.

If anything Art is the purest, rawest, most chaotic form of humanity. You won't find it anywhere else, no other living form need and do Art. A bird can sing, a peacock can dance, a monkey can draw but they will never make Art because they do this as a natural mean and not for Art. That's the thing about Art, it's not natural nor a necessity and it's certainly not about beauty. You can argue that nature is Art because of how beautiful it is but it's your human brain and your own emotion that will turn what you see into Art, nature alone isn't and cannot be Art. I'd even say it's kind of egocentrical to call nature "Art" and turn it into a mere human concept, because nature do not answer to our codes and morales and feeling, you don't bend nature to humanity. Art is an absolute concentration of human knowledge. Science, math, philosophy, history, psychology, beliefs etc... You get the idea. So if you control Art, you control all the rules, you control people. That's also why the curiosity to learn is a necessity in Art.

That'w why supremactis only praise one kind of Art and allow one kinda of beauty : as realistic as possible and as white coded as possible. Of course they won't talk about other cultures. You'll see them jerk off on antique statues, "Masters", christian architecture. You'll see them praise the Sistine Chapel or Notre-Dame de Paris but never the Mïnâkshi Temple nor the Sultan Ahmet Mosque. You'll see them share the same Antonio Corradini statues but they will never mention the Yoruba Arts. They will share Leonardo Da Vinci but they'll never talk about Frida Khalo and it's not even like it was some kind of obscur Arts. They will never share artists who made Art accessible again like Marcel Duchamp because what they do is, how do they call that, "ugly" and some will go as far as calling it "degenerate", right?

There's a reason nazi burnt down books and called any Arts that didn't follow their supremacism agenda "degenerate" and that's the reason. Remember, nazis didn't create supremacism, they took well long established rules.

That's why they hate us little artists online so much, because through our very simplistic little fanarts we make for fun in our freetime, we make Art accessible and we destroy this noble and pure vision of Art they need to maintain control.

That's why Art became, over time, a synonym for nobility, wealth, power, intelligence and elitism. Because Art is also the biggest door to knowledge and if you control knowledge you control people's belief and through their belief you control them. So if you control Art, you have power.

That's why I don't believe in "I dissociate the Art from the artist". Art is a part of ourself, you cannot dissociate it from a person, never. It reflects their ideas, their passions, their mindset, everything (not even mentionning how someone's creation profit their reputation, therefore power and their wallet 'cause it's obvious enough as it is). And you can dissociate all you want, you're not removing its purpose and message just because it's more comfortable for you, that's not how it works.

Art is a physical form of our psyche, you cannot dissociate it from us, it's just a very lazy way to avoid thinking and questionning whatever you're consuming. Because you're just so used of having pretty and comfortable Art you forget it's a door to humanity for the best and the worst.

I'm not saying "if you're into "beauty" and classic white Art you're a supremacist yourself", I don't have that importance. I'm saying just because you like something doesn't mean it's not questionable, just because you know something doesn't mean it's right, just like just because something is questionable doesn't mean you can't enjoy it, it's way more complexe than that. Questionning something and adressing its problem doesn't prevent you from liking it the same way liking something doesn't mean you approve all its problems. Things aren't manichaean.

What I'm saying is, that's why it's important to keep an open mind and question the World, to remember that just because something have been "like this forever" doesn't mean it's right, just because you're used to something doesn't mean it's right. We know nothing, we'll never know anything so keep learning. That's also why it's important to not stick to "beautiful arts" and to push yourself in more disturbing areas.

Bigotry is born of a lack of perspective that is ultimatly born from that need to always feel in a known pretty and comfortable area. Keep your mind open, educate yourself and others through your own passion and arts.

Thinking you can change the World without violence is a lie and an utopia. Of course thinking you cannot make a difference through patience and compassion is wrong too, nothing is manichaean, nothing is that simple and certainly not humanity. But that's why you need to go beyond prettiness and comfort in arts, that's why you need to engage with "gross" and "ugly" arts in a respectful and compassionate way.

Everyone is an artist. Your favorite comics book is Art, your favorite video game is Art, your fanart is Art, a child sharing a drawing of a bunch of stickmen is an artist, a purest artist than any of us even, because their only mean is to materialize a feeling through a memory or a dream and share it, it's about communication.

That's what Art is about.

That's also why I hate the academic view of Art "you need to stick to these rules", no you don't, you need to follow some rules if you want to reach a certain skill level but being an artist isn't about skill, you don't need skill to express yourself. It's fine to want to improve your skill but it's not about "becoming an artist", it's about improving a skill for your own personal satisfaction or your job, you don't need to be a pro in everything you do in order to do it and have fun doing it. Being an artist and learning to master a technic are two different things.

How I hate elitism and academic rules. Even when it takes other cultures into consideration, it's always in a nasty way and you can try it, show a comics book to someone, an anime, the MCU and tell them this is Art and watch them throwing a tantrum at this statement, as true as it is. Because it would imply that everything is Art and so if everything is, it means they don't get to be better than anyone else.

So what is Art? Art is humanity and humanity is imperfect and that's why it's powerful. It doesn't have to be physically appealing, or appealing at all in fact, it doesn't have to follow a standard, it doesn't have to please you. As I said Art is a huge chaos, unatural and imperfect. Disturbing, uncomfortable, complex, like humanity.

That's why this blog is so chaotic, why this post is chaotic and doesn't have any real construction. Because I write the way I share, that's why my main social media is also incredibly chaotic and why I am too. I like to share what I like the way I feel it, raw. That's why everything I do looks like a very organized mess, because that's how my mind works. I share the way I draw, I draw the way I think, because my Art is me.

I'm an artist not because I draw for a living, not because what I do looks good (and that's still a very personal view anyway, I'm sure some people dislike my artstyle the way I'm not sensitive to some), but because all my arts, even if it's fanart, are meant to communicate, to share something important to me. To express the words I'm too clumsy to properly use.

Recently I saw a therapist as a full complet health check up.

But the point is, she saw my arts and she said "you draw the way you feel. You draw to share a passion" that's why I wanted to talk about that.

What she mentionned is what fanarts are about. In fact that's what Art is about. Any kind of Art, really. You do Art because you need to express something, not necessarly something deep or meaningful. As long as you feel and have something to share, you're an artist. Even if you do things for yourself, even if nobody but you see what you do. Communicating with yourself, to yourself, it's still communication. You don't even need to share to anyone but you.

Let's quickly talk about social media too, because unfortunatly it absolutly changed the way people see, enjoy and make Art and reinforce this shitty vision of perfection.

Ironically, because I'm known for having a loud and heavy presence online, I hate social media.

It absolutly destroyed people's approach of Art, let it be through a twisted pursuit of fame and power or through the intellectual laziness it induces. "What's the point of creating if I can't be good at it", "what's the point of wasting my time learning to create if it doesn't bring me immediate fame and money". Art is an aesthetic, a flat and boring one. You're not allowed a vision, you're not allowed an opinion. How many time a day do you see "keep politic out of it"? It's not even true, they're not against politic, they're against a vision that oppose theirs. It's pure Supremacism.

Like I said, my Art is a reflect of my life, it's connected to what I am, what I say, what I share. I don't want it to be perfect or match an aesthetic, I don't want to shut the fuck up to please losers who don't like seeing a queer artist having opinion, nor kids who live in their little Utopia and who think you should be all flat and perfect and will call problematic whatever doesn't match their own childish vision of humanity. Bending to these standards to please is bending to these Supremacist norms. You're better than that.

Your Arts should match you and only you, you shouldn't give a shit if it's not what people want you to do. Your Art is a part of yourself and you're not here to become a product nor to please anyone but you, don'tt be sorry if people are annoyed by your own existence, it's a them problem.

An artist can recreate what people like but a good artist will make people like what they create. That's what I think and what I keep saying.

We're all twisted by this need for recognition, because it's all about sharing so of course it feels incredibly depressing to share something and feel like it won't reach anyone, it makes you feel alone.

That's also the meaning of Art, fighting humanity's biggest fear, death, the void, the nothing you taste through loneliness, that's why loneliness is scary, because it's a glimpse of death.

I need to share. I need to share what I do, I need to share what I like and more importantly I need to share what I am, I need to share my existence with whoever will care. Maybe it's a way to prove ourself that we're "here", as I said, in a mean to fight the loneliness.

But do we need to be famous to achieve that? Certainly not so why do we keep trying to get even more and more even if it means sacrificing our Art, sacrificing a part of ourself?

We all try to be among the top rather than suffering in the pit, even if it means accepting to turn ourself into an empty shell. Social media made it easy to feel that sensation, to touch that glory and make you think it's reachable, so I get it. Most people are just trying to make a living and unfortunatly for that you have to follow the rules, I need to make a living too after all, I know the feeling.

But still, I hate how social media reinforce this idea that you need to follow perfection for that. If anything social media should have been a way to do the opposite, it should be a way to let everyone express themself, it shouldn't be the hellish shit hole it is now, it should be a tool to prove that we're all equal. But I guess I'm a dreamer.

They give you this illusion that you're in control of everything you do, the protagonist of everyone's life when really you're just an empty ghoul among empty ghouls silently suffering a model you pretend to escape by following it. It gave you this illusion of sharing and be heard when you were never as lonely as you are now, because it's never enough. You need to make more numbers, what's the point otherwise? Because it's not about sharing anymore, it's not about Art, it's about becoming superior and powerful and the follow number is a way to make you more important than others, it's a power scall. People don't create out of passion, they create out of greed.

Social media induced intellectual laziness and if you followed what I explained above, you understand why it's a problem and how it's highly related to the rise of faschism. People cannot think by themself anymore, they cannot create their own opinion, they will stick to one. Even when they express their "own" opinion they will always do it in a way it will fit and bring them visibility, it's never for themself, it's never their opinion but somehow it's still about themself and shining through someone else's ideas.

You can't even share a simple mushroom recipe anymore without having a bunch of people complaining about how they don't like mushroom and asking how to make this mushroom recipe mushroom-less so it fits themself and their protagonist syndrom instead of looking for a recipe with no mushroom by themself. That's the paradoxe of social media, it makes you think everything is about you when it's about following the popular mindset.

That's the point of fame, in order to be famous you have to fit while thinking you matter more than others. The only way to get special is to be like everyone else, how dumb does that sound. And yet, that's what it is about.

People are used to stop learning. What's the point of looking deeper than just whatever this 20 words tweet is about? How can it be wrong anyway, if internet said it's true then it is. People aren't curious anymore because it takes time so it's boring. One of my friend was explaining to me how they didn't need to do more than browsing TikTok or asking chatgpt because through a few seconds they could have a bare minimum answer about anything without having to care or learn.

I've been told "why don't you use AI to draw faster instead of wasting you time?" and when I explained to them "because the point of a passion and a hobby is to spend time in it" they wouldn't understand. Because what's the point if you don't make profit? That's the insane thing with AI and social media, it's about finding ways to avoid spending time in your passions so you have more time to work and fight people.

People cannot take their time anymore. They don't want to learn anyway, they want to react to everything, even shit they don't care about, react fast while it's trendy to get people's attention even if it's negative. Because on social media you're not allowed to rest, you need to know about everything and to have an opinion on anything and to make it as loud as possible.

People can't just sit and appreciate something simple, calm and silent, they'll get bored. And I think it's even dangerous because by relying on people to make it easy for you, you're absorbing their opinions, their pov, their experiences rather than living and creating yours. That's how radicalisation works, it's dangerous.

It dehumanizes people and yourself, you can't scroll through your feelings, you can't just make everything about youself and you can't just get everything you want in a click. Things take time. Because you need time to feel, to adress and understand what's going on, to go on, to live. There's a reason people are more and more depressed and impatient and anxious, because their brain are always pressured by the flow of content, overly stimulated. A lot of people will tell you "posting online makes me feel better", that's fucking addiction mate. Social media isn't a way to escape loneliness, it's a way to reinforce it by having you think that if you don't fit in you're not worth it. That's a professional you need, not a fucking social media designed to make you hate everything and everyone.

I keep seeing people who share every single of their life, as if they were important. Thinking they're accomplishing something by exposing themself. Comforting themself in their problems, finding excuses to be mean to each others.

Recently I was watching Lost Ollie and the first thing I noticed and loved about it is how slow it is. How it takes its time and let you properly feel the moment, the emotion you're meant to feel. It gives you time to accept what you're seeing, to feel it and then to adress it, kinda as if the serie was telling you "it's alright to feel this way" and it's a life lesson we're forgetting way too much lately, feeling needs time to be processed and so does Art, so does curiosity and everything that make us humans and not just machines.

And it's sad because Art is a door to knowledge, I know I'm writing this a lot but it's important to understand how everything is connected. That's why in order to progress in any Art field you need to take time and to learn and to observe. It's very true when you draw, the best way to learn isn't practicing, as important as it is, but learning to understand what you're looking at. Let's take a very simple exemple, the hand. The reason it's so hard to draw is because most people try to draw a hand as a whole, one object, when there's 5 fingers and each fingers have 3 parts and all these part are a form with its own shape and perspective and there's the palm with 3 parts, so you see, an hand isn't a single form and a whole, to properly draw it you first need to understand you're drawing so many different forms and not just one and for that you need to observe and to think. You need to deconstruct what you look at to construct it and it requires time and curiosity. It's a reflect of your mindset, in life too you need to deconstruct what you know to learn and to live.

The curiosity to learn is a keypart of Art. The thirst to knowledge is one of its fuel.

Art is passion and it doesn't matter how silly or mainstream your passion is, it was born of Art, it became Art. It will lead to the creation of another Art. It's a cycle.

This is why I love fiction so much, fiction is a way to educate you, to make you sensitive. You learn through it ever since you were born and it has been this way forever. Through legends, through tales.

Every fiction is a form of Art and a door to something else. Through my love for Hulk I started reading about everything that inspired it out of curiosity, in order to learn about it and everything that inspired what it inspired etc etc... I started with Hulk and I ended up with Carl G Jung.

That's why I'm sharing so much about what I love, as simple as something like "Hulk" can sounds because of interiorised elitism, I'm passionate by passion, I want to communicate and share my feelings because through me I will share the feelings of other people who inspired other people and who ultimatly inspired me the way I'll inspired others. It's a wonderful and beautiful loop, it's humanity.

Art is the purest form of humanity and life.

I'm not against "growing" and improving our skills as an artist, because as I was improving and learning to have a better artstyle, I was growing and improving myself too. My mindset. I was learning and not just about Art but about everything. Art is a mirror of your soul and a door to your heart. And you build your soul and your heart through your life experience, through learning, through feeling.

I was always scared to do more than "realistic" colors and boy how I SUCKED at it and more importantly how I HATED coloring my stuff before. But now, ironically, I'm mostly known for my colors, isn't it funny? Colors were my biggest imperfection so instead of trying to make it "perfect", I took the other way, I made it even more imperfect. I mixed colors you're not supposed to mix, I used overly saturation you're not supposed to use. I broke the rules of perfection and did my own stuff. I embraced my "imperfections" through Art, I embraced myself. Even physically, I tattooed myself, dyed my hair, change my look for something more flashy and cluttered, something more like me. I used to say I see myself as a part of my Art but it's the other way around, it's Art that is a part of ourself. And I didn't only improved through my colors but also through my assurance, it's visible in my lines, they're more confident, less shy. So am I.

When I rejected the comformism that made me suffer in my own arts, I rejected it in my life too.

I love Art, we need Art, it's everywhere, in every shapes because Art is humanity and no matter how fucking twisted and scary the world and people are, you'll always find humanity. You'll always find someone with a story to tell, a feeling to share, a hand to lend.

It's easy to understand someone through their arts. If you're curious enough to understand Art then you can understand people, it's that simple.

And being an artist, damn, being an artist is the best thing. How I love making people smile and dream through my passion only. How I love opening them the door to curiosity to create their own vision and ultimatly their own Art.

I feel powerful.

As artists we hold the strongest power in the palm of our hand, we have the power to inspire, to change someone's day, to change their life, even, the way some artists (and by artists I mean writers, actors, musicians, whoever worked on our stories) changed mine and gave me the strength I needed without even knowing I exist. This is how powerful Art is. Art is born of Art, that's how you create your vision, your artstyle, you take from other people. I'll talk as someone who draw because this is what I know best but it works for everything in its own way. You see a drawing you love and you're like "oh I love how they made this eye" so you'll try to understand why and how, you'll take the time to think about it, to reproduce it, to incorporate it in your own artstyle and mixed with everything else that inspires you, your artstyle will be born, your Art will be born. Every Art piece, every little drawing, even the 3 years old stickmen, are inspired by others. There's so many people and passion behind one single Art.

An artstyle is a Frankenstein monster, created through pieces of different people and together they give life to something different. We're all mad scientists, testing stuff until it works out, creating. That's also why we love creating so much, because it makes us feel powerful, like a God. Because if Art is humanity then Art is life so if you create Art you create life.

And so, if everyone can create then everyone is a God and if everyone is a God nobody is above others.

That's what being an artist is about. It's about staying humble and open minded, to question the World. Curious and patient. Kind and passionate. And more importantly, it's about being human and feeling, with all our imperfections and our struggles. All our happiness and all our pain. Through laughs and through tears, through love and through hate, through peace and through rage. A beautiful imperfect chaos of emotions.

As artist we give a physical form to emotions, ideas, dreams. That's what beauty is really about, the raw experience of life.

This post is very clumsy and I didn't even brushed the top of the iceberg, but I hope it was interesting enough to make you understand why sharing and creating are so important. Why learning is so important. Why breaking tbeauty norms is so important.

Stay open-minded and stay curious please.

Art is the quickest way to your mind, heart, feelings and dreams. Respect it to respect yourself.

Enjoy~