My mom said I should write about the ewok child.
So I’m tempted to discuss anything else out of spite.
Perhaps I could add to the growing number of posts on here discussing the role of social media as an artist, including my recent observation of “reposting” that makes so much sense, but was only noticeable when I finally looked. I could add onto that about the stigma of copying other artists, when that is among the best ways to learn. Or I could pivot and talk about the potential post title that kept me up the other night until I wrote it down: “Shameless Self-promotion and Ignoring the Celebrity Status.” Hey, wait a minute. This is the Christmas Season in America! I could have it all! (Confirming your suspicions: that’s a jab at consumerism) I’ll start with the ewok.
“I made an ewok. He kinda cute.”
One of the ways I’m making social media work for me now is by being more intentional while on it. I’ve gone out and looked for the cardboard artists I admire, and have taken note of the projects they’ve made that I “wish I could do.” most importantly though, I’ve engaged with other artists through the platforms. I comment things with more substance than “Wow!” or “Cool!” and if I have questions about a process, I just ask! This ewok made by @pizzadadcomic is just one of the projects I’ve engaged with and resulted in a creation of my own!
Another realization is key (for my personal growth) in this project: I didn’t rush it. That’s new. In the past, I’ve seen something like this, and have been like “that would be cool to make” and moved on. This time, I commented on the post, getting a response from the creator (motivation) but then held off to make it until—well—until I had time. Which was a two-day period several weeks later (12/23-24/2024). I did make mine on a smaller scale, but with similar technique, and similar results! It was reassuring to know that I could make something like that, and I did. I’m looking forward to “copying” more cardboard artists to learn and practice further techniques.
Those are my primary thoughts on the ewok project, and it seems to segue well into the thoughts I had recently on the celebrity status.
When interacting with people online, it’s SO easy to disaccosiate them from reality. They are, quite literally, a curated image for you to view. Personally, I know I make sure not to put out thoughts, ideas, and projects that would prompt people to view me as crude, angry, or indulgent. Other creators go as far as to wear a box over their head when recording any videos of themself, so as not to reveal their “real” identity. (@hectorsector13) They become a new person in their videos. So it makes sense why it becomes so easy for viewers and consumers to forget the reality of creators’ humanity. Don’t.
When interacting with Wesley Hall (pizzadadcomic) as shown above, his humanity was obvious. He’s a very down-to-earth kind of creator, very friendy, and helps at a makerspace in his community, so he surely has some experience guiding. On the opposite end of the scale would be somebody like Taylor Swift. Is she less human? No. In fact, she has the same capacity as Wesley Hall as an individual. What she does have that he does not, is a following a million times larger. More people want to interact with her, but it’s impossible for her attention to spread that far. So people get left out, and she achieves “Celebrity Status” because demand outweighs supply. Desired interaction outweighs her capacity.
Honestly, the easiest way to avoid acknowledging the celebrity status is to not be aware of their fame in the first place. There are people out there who don’t know who Taylor Swift is, and if they bumped into her on the street, would be just as likely to say “watch where yer goin!” to her as to anyone else. This lack of reverance happened recently to me with the CEO of Praisecharts, Ryan Dahl. I was surrounded by friends who are well-versed in the music world, and treated him with a sort of admiration (so it seemed) while I, on the other hand, was quick to hand him one of my cereal box business cards, and would you look at that! he’s now subscribed to my newsletter! (Thanks Ryan!) All this to say that Charles Duhigg would say and I would then say, “dehumanization spoils communication.” When interacting on social media, the last thing we should do is dehumanize, or let a celebrity status keep us from positive interpersonal communication.
Moving right along, I suppose I talked a bit about copying other artists to learn, but there’s another story to add! Professor Soderstrom told me once of his dislike of Picasso’s work. He thought it was pointless, and absurd (I’m paraphrasing), that is, until he did several art studies of the works. You see, Picasso knew how to paint realism exquisitely, but turned to the more expressionist form of art because it could communicate his message more effectively. Just because the works suddenly looked a whole lot weirder, doesn’t mean they didn’t have an even greater level of meaning behind them. Soderstrom only recognized the meaning when he studied them more deeply. Copying artists is good. (Just don’t profit off their work, there are laws in place.) The greater level of attention mimicry requires, cultivates a deeper appreciation for anything.
The last thing on my wishlist for this post is a comment about the “reposting” I’ve noticed by many popular artists on social media. I always wondered how they kept cranking out all this incredible work, posting daily projects that appear to have taken weeks. Well now I know. A single project can have as many as a dozen posts, spread over progress updates, the final piece, and adaptations of the piece to various media trends. And then—here’s the kicker—when they don’t have anything new to post, they repost an old project with common words like “throwback,” or they hold up in quick succession a slew of their works in a new reel. This is all sweet and dandy, but I don’t save my work! Maybe 10% of it is still in my possession besides photos. I don’t often save sketches if they’re on loose paper or in spiral-bound books, and I certainly don’t hold on to commissioned works or gifts I’ve made intended for others. I suppose I can repost the photos, but I cannot simply place them in a new context—only use what I already have.
I guess I’m a day late in finishing this post, so I can only say “Happy Holidays” after checking off my wishlist of comments. To respect the new observation about reposting, I’ll leave you with a random concluding thought from one of my past blog posts. Enjoy:
I have all the justification I need to scrap hours of work to pursue something I want to do more.
