The Commodification Of Art Continues

There are a lot of people that aren't into the art scene (or whatever scene ), and they'll look for an easy fix for their itch. This usually means they'll end up consuming something mass-market and commodified. It's hard to win that game on creation alone. (If you can, you're in a good space.)

On eBay and other marketplaces, people are selling cheap "original" wall decor that are painted in assembly-line factories located in China, Mexico, Bangladesh, and across the US. (Or even think of art that is simply printed with embellishments.)

These items are usually copies of a style, direct facsimiles, or quick Photoshop edits. Aside from the legal and moral lameness involved, I don't think it's very good. But I understand the role it plays, and I'm not mad it it.

What you're seeing is a commodification of art on a large scale. (Notice that the image above says 24 sold.) While, I don't knock anyone that buys this stuff, I think you can do much better for yourself.

- Mr Benja -

Splitting My Focus Into Three Projects for 2019

I have three projects that I plan on getting worked on this year. I know that sounds like crazy talk, but I'm trying something out, here.

The common idea is that you should focus everything you are doing into laser-light precision and get that one thing done. I get it, and I believe that to be true in a general sense. In fact, The ONE Thing (by Jay Papasan and Gary Keller) is a great book that really got me to a good place with my productivity.

I know that I waste a lot of time, but when I'm most productive, I've found that I have a few things that I can roll onto. Basically, when one task is completing, I can roll onto another one without losing momentum. If I have to keep doing the same thing, I can sometimes burn myself out. I'll have to work on embracing the monotony, but that's how it happens right now.

Also, when I pour a lot of energy into something, it seems like people back away from the energy instead of responding positively to it. I don't know what that's about, but I've often been told to "calm down" on social media and in life. I've been told that I'm "too much". So pffft...I have to spread things out a bit or create new outlets.

Project 1 - The Trap Vector

The Trap Vector is my fine art print project. It's my lead-off effort for the year. It's a follow-up of sorts to a lot of the personal thoughts and feelings I was having for the past seven years. The genesis probably started well before that, but that's what it's about right now.

This outlet gets out my artsy fartsy concepts.

Project 2 - Transcendent Press

Transcendent Press is my writing project. If I could, I would probably just write for about a month, and then come out with some stone tablets full of god-like text. Then I'd realize it needs editing and I'd go away for another month. This doesn't fit in my plans right now, so writing is going to have to take the long and laborious route.

This outlet gets out my most heady creative ideas, and is currently my biggest long-range goal. I have a book planned for sometime this year, and I've gotten to work on it.

Project 3 - The 8BitCubist

Oh boy. A lot of people have been wondering what happened to the 8BitCubist from a while ago, and simply put, the band broke up. I mean, we didn't break up, but we went our separate ways, and the venture was never meant to be a solo one. So over time, I needed to put the brakes on it to figure out what the next iteration was going to be about. I am not going to be putting this in full force for the near term, but it's coming.

I think a podcast and apparel will do good to start with.

I'll do some other posts outlining what's coming I'm learning in 2019 in greater detail.
Let me know what you think of the plan so far.

I Can't Deal With People, Not Even When Good Food Is On The Line

One of the hardest things for me to do is to have a straight-up deal. People always want to add bullshit, adjust parameters, play dumb, try to game, avoid compromise, assume favorable positions, and just behave in disingenuous manners. I think people don't believe what I actually say for some reason. 

 For example, I was going to meet up to eat at a cool restaurant with someone that I hadn't seen in a while. (We were both into checking out cool food places.) We were going to work out some things and catch up. The deal was that we would both split the bill for the dinner. Later on, though, they said that the meeting would be a part of their birthday week. I didn't think think much of it. 

 A few days later I hopped into heavy LA traffic to make my way to the meetup. I got a call and then a text while I was driving, so I pulled over and returned the call. Turns out the person was just checking on my ETA. Cool. But somewhere in the quick banter, the birthday week was mentioned again. I had to call the person on that little bit of verbal subterfuge. Well then they confessed that they expected me to pay for dinner. I hung up, got back in the car, and turned around. That relationship is basically over now.

 So yeah, I've been told that I'm hard to deal with. I've also been told that I'm quite particular. Whatever. If getting things in order is a problem when you're dealing with people's money, time, energy, etc. then life around me will be a problem. Going forward, I'm going to be much MORE of a hardass in dealing with clown behavior. But I'm in a happier place, so I'll be less of a grump about it. The blows will come faster, but will feel softer. 

It's 2019. 
Let's go.