NOTE: The featured image above, COLONIAL DOMINATION, is available for free download via Patreon, along with a growing collection of other abstract digital artworks also available for free download. Additionally, my debut EP WE AREN’T SURE THIS IS ANYTHING is also available for free or name-your-own-price via Bandcamp.
We live in a mostly capitalist, globalized world, where the rich only ever get richer, and the poor (including myself) only get poorer and more numerous. Stating that, it occurs to me that that could just be the end of the blog post, but well, it’s not.
There’s a reason I want to create art and music, it’s just that money is not that reason. The reason I enjoy making art of any kind is that it’s fun for me to make it. If other people enjoy it, even better!
In fact, I’d much rather have someone enjoy my artworks and not pay for them than pay for them and then maybe enjoy them or pay for them and then not enjoy them. In fact, I’d much rather have someone enjoy my work for free, and then love it enough to give the original art files that they got for free to a friend or loved one also for free. That’s what culture is all about for me.
To me, art can be a great uniter. It can tell stories, it can bridge language gaps, it can alter how we look at society, ourselves, and each other. But when access to art becomes a priced barrier, suddenly, art can become just a void, a luxury you can’t afford or access.
I don’t look at stunning, timeless paintings from hundreds of years ago and think to myself, “you know, I don’t really value this because I didn’t have to prepay $14.99 per month to view it online.” I view and admire them for what they tell me about that artist, their worldview, their culture, that period in time… for what they tell me about myself, in this moment, and how art can transcend time and space in ways that money cannot.
When we’re young, it’s really dumb, but we’re conditioned to enjoy the popular thing, because it is how we can have the most friends and relate with the most people. We’re taught that that pop song we love just hit platinum sales status or that book we love is on a bestseller list. We learn to want our favorite artists to succeed and others to fall by the wayside.
As I grew out of my teenage years, back when I followed rock and alternative album charts, I grew to understand something very important: I learned that I liked more independent music, music that was more emotionally authentic, music that wasn’t as polished and radio-friendly, even music that transcended traditional music genre formats. I stopped caring about what was on the radio (back in the days when that was a measure of success for music), or which record sold the most copies.
This YouTube video clip (timestamped link) by Rick Beato interviewing Benn Jordan brings up this concept in a slightly different way, it starts off with Rick bringing up how he creates what he wants to create, not what will become most popular with the YouTube algorithm.
They then go on to talk about what they define as being a successful musician: being that you’re making music and making what you love to make. Not what gets the most sales or streams. Not worrying about what your audience will think. Not having a successful YouTube channel or TikTok.
It’s just making what you want to make, how you want to make it.
When I released my debut EP, I made it so that you can download it, in its entirety, for free or by naming your own price on Bandcamp. I’m also now releasing my new digital artworks for free including my most recent piece COLONIAL DOMINATION, which is up on Patreon for free to anyone, in its original quality, at the highest resolution.
So if it’s free, why did I put it on Patreon and not here?
Well, I got an email from them saying I needed to update my page because I hadn’t updated it in a while or it would be taken down, so I thought about it and decided, screw it, let’s make my artwork available there for free, and if people then decide they want to support me, they can do so easily right there.
Yes, you can pay to subscribe, or subscribe for free on there. Or do neither.
I’m still going to make art and music and make it available to you regardless of your ability or desire to pay for it. I’m also still going to continue making everything available using a Creative Commons By-SA license, which allows you or anyone to remix my art, share it, copy it, with the only requirements being that you attribute the original work to me and Share Alike. (You can also click the link to view more license details.)
Yes, technically, this isn’t the same as a public domain license or a similar copyleft type license like Creative Commons Zero. It means I can still hold the copyright for myself. It means I can choose in the future to no longer release it under Creative Commons licensing, though I probably won’t. But mostly, it means I can ensure that people who do use and/or distribute my artwork attribute me and pay it forward or “share alike” as the license states.
Because culture we love is culture worth sharing, and even though capitalism often mandates that artists and authors gate off their content behind paywalls just to survive, it shouldn’t have to be that way. This isn’t about shaming the artists who abide by this status quo just so they can put food on the table, in fact, it’s because I have food on the table that I don’t have to think this way.
Maybe someday we can all live in a world where housing, food, healthcare, childcare, and education are guaranteed to everyone as basic human rights. But until that day, I still want to create artwork that I love and share it in ways that you can enjoy without any barriers.
I have some other creative writing and other artwork ideas I’m probably going to be releasing in the near future, and you can expect to learn about them on my website here, my Patreon, or via my BlueSky. I don’t update my other socials as much, and may eliminate some of them in the near future, but you can use the menu at the top of the page to follow me on other outlets or buy me a coffee.
I’ll be around,
WASTIA // ECHO