Hi this is gonna be a longish post but it's not anything important so feel free to skip it over unless you're bored or interested. I'm just awake at 4 am and I have nothing to do before work so I felt like expressing here, on my thread, some opinions of mine on an art-related subject. I'm not posting because I want an argument (I'd make a separate thread for that lol and no one is getting called out here), or even a discussion because I sincerely have no interest in discussing this with anybody. These are just thoughts that I've had on this subject for a long time and I felt like putting them down somewhere for the record, because as an artist I'm frequently expected to have a particular viewpoint on this matter so here's what my view actually is.
There is no such thing as art hoarding. In order for something to be called "hoarding" it has to negatively effect somebody - e.g. scalpers who buy things with the sole intention of reselling it at an inflated price, or people who hoard physical items that they have no use for but they can't throw anything away.
In the case of art, once a piece has been commissioned by somebody, it has literally no value to anybody else. It is personal and unique and utterly worthless to everyone besides the artist and the patron. A person could own ten thousand individual pieces of artwork and it doesn't mean that each of those pieces wasn't meaningful, that they weren't loved. Otherwise the person would not keep collecting. And even if it I could find an example of compulsory art-buying, as long as artists are being supported, I see no harm whatsoever. Obviously other artists will have other opinions about that but I never feel as though my efforts are cheapened because my commissioner already had a lot of art, or that they want to buy lots more - artists are being paid and the collector is doing something that makes them happy.
Commissions can still be personal but they're also a form of business. A lot of artists rely on repeat-customers and big art collectors and it's possible to develop a closer working relationship in these cases but technically all responsibility between parties ends once payment is made and the finished product is received. No one stands to lose out in this situation besides the other people who "wanted the art but missed out" because of someone else, and honestly that attitude strikes me as far more entitled than that of a collector; artists are real people who put real time into their work and can work for whomever they wish, and no one ever "deserves" to have their art more than somebody else, just because they have less art or even none at all. Not getting art from certain people isn't the end of the world. I understand the feeling of frustration - I've felt it myself - but in the end it should be recognized for what it really is, and that's just the standard disappointment that comes with not getting something you wanted. But there are always opportunities for art. There's no national art crisis where there's not enough art to go around and it has to be rationed out. You just have to be willing to stay in the game. And you
must be willing to pay an artist their actual worth.
Here's some ultra lazy character doodles so this whole post isnt just some dumb bs no ones gonna read
8)
