Art Regression is good actually.

Its understandable that terms with big scary words attached to them can make us feel uneasy, especially when it's an inherent judgment of one's abilities. As artists we don’t want to feel like we’re getting worse rather than improving in our art, so the fear that your art is regressing is like a seed that grows the more you sit down and look at something you’ve made. But like any other weed, it's better to cut that stuff out, figuratively speaking.

So what's this all about? Current conversation in the world of the larger online art world seems to be both captivated by and afraid of becoming artists who, in a general sense of the word, apparently get worse in their art. To put in time to practice something or really push yourself in an art piece, only to come out the other side and go “oh this is garbage” you start asking yourself if you’re actually just bad, maybe you were never meant to be an artist, and you wasted your prime doing nothing with your art.

First, breathe because your art isn't regressing more than likely. Secondly, consider that perhaps that's something you should do, and its good. Now how could that be? Like how does my art getting worse being good make sense?

Do you know how lobsters grow? Lobsters molt their shells, and when they do this they end up growing to be larger, and they just keep doing that. They’re progressing, but before they can they have to abandon their old tough shells and adorn themselves in a temporarily soft shell. Now what was the point of that? It's a metaphor for developing your skills as an artist. Its not a straight line where you go clearly from your worst to your best, sometimes you’ll be in a period where your art stagnates or you get rusty due to life situations out of your own control. Its nothing to be ashamed of, it's part of the process of becoming an artist.

I’ve heard this from Jreg i think, during a video talking about performance and art in general, he said something along the lines of “...the purpose of being an artist is to fine tune yourself into a vessel for which art can move through…” of course i'm paraphrasing, but the concept really sticks with me because of my preoccupation with the occult. In many occult and occult-aligned/adjacent practices, there's a concept of a companion spirit, one who's supposed to either guide you, aide you in your spiritual or general life decisions, or is a representation of the best version of yourself that you are to become one” with. In each of these examples there is still a belief that through ritual and specific acts of fasting and abstinence (or the lack of it in some practices) you dedicate yourself to become a vessel for which you may conjure fourth what it is you need that will make you a better version of yourself. I think these two ideas, turning yourself into a vessel for art to flow through, and turning yourself into a vessel for divine communication, as concepts they feed into each other which is good to know as we move forward as artists.

How do we go about becoming a vessel for art? Start with deciding what it is you want to do. “I want to be a musician, I want to be a painter, I want to be a cartoonist, etc etc” whatever form of art you want to be responsible for, figure it out, even if you want to be a polymat, that's good too, just make a decision. Now that you’ve decided what you want to be now, the second minimum requirement is that you call yourself that. Shut up about being a “content creator”, what does that word even mean? Is the breath of your soul just a commodity to buy and sell? Fuck that, don’t sell yourself short if you’re serious about this, call yourself an artist, musician, whatever you are own it. Then comes the third step you absolutely need to follow; Make the art you want to be responsible for. This might sound easy, but completing a project is often more difficult than it can appear on the surface. That shouldn’t discourage you though, because its in the process of completing a project that you can really feel like you're an artist, what better expression of your creation then the very process of it, actually moving your hand, body, voice to make something only you can make, the action of being the creator for a time.

Now, past this you can do whatever else you want as you make your art, no one’s path is ever the same, and the discouragement from lack of success can be a drag on anyone. You should remember though, that you’re in this to be an artist, hopefully. If you want fame and money, find someone to sell yourself out to, that's the only way to find stable work in the art-o-sphere, because as many will tell you getting into this game isn’t going to gain you any large amount of wealth or, really anything you would hope from being a “successful ___” on your own. If your in it for the love of the game, however, remember why you do what you do. Personally, I make the stuff I do because I want to throw my own voice into the greater world in the small ways I can. I don’t think my art is ‘that important’ in the grander scheme of things, but I do believe that anyone's art can be inspiring to others, and I only hope that people see what I make and say to themselves “I want to make something like that” and be a positive change in the smallest waves i can make.

These are, ofcourse, just guidelines, and not meant to be taken as super strict rules, and really not even that seriously. Art is supposed to be fun to make, and nothing kills that more than over seriousness thinking you're going to be the next davinci in your little 20-50 people friend group. I think you should be balanced about it, take your art and your attitude seriously, make yourself the thing you want to be, but for the love of god please have fun with it, or you will hate everything you make because of the impossible standard you will inevitably make for yourself. You are allowed to make mistakes, and sometimes you should make them on purpose because why not, maybe you’ll do something that ends up being better then your original idea. Like the late Bob Ross said, “...no such thing as mistakes, just happy accidents…”

I'd like to finish this written text post with a recommendation for a youtube video. When I started to take this more seriously, I was watching this college art professor's watercoloring channel, and he talks about finding your own style and voice. The thing I remember intensely is his advice to simply start over learning again. Forget how to draw and start from scratch, but this time do it in the way that you most like it to be, instead of by the instruction of a teacher or mentor or art instructor, it’s your voice and only you are capable of speaking with it.