Pretentious and self absorbed - Taking a step back from you and your art.

Look I'll just come out and say it, a lot of creatives need to get over themselves.

This isn't just directed at the cryptoart space, this applies to the art world as a whole. The stereotype of self indulgent smug pseudo intellectualism in the arts isn't wholly unfounded, and that is a problem. For every bit of trite try-hard nonsense that gets elevated, public trust and desire to explore the arts is eroded, our circle shrinks, and arts power wanes in the public eye.

If we allow or contribute to the shaping of arts image as one of grandiose personal statements poorly propped up by half cut creations, or full of self indulgence so heavy it washes aways the relatability found in shared experience, then we shape an art world of sycophantic praise in small circles.

It's all very well saying this is "your most personal work yet" but quite frankly assuming that adds any real importance in and of itself is 9 times out of 10 foolishness or arrogance. I have a book at home I drew when I was 7, its deeply personal to me as an artwork, my earliest surviving creative output, it even uses materials iconic to the time period (scented gel pens)... its also sh1t, and if i ever dress it up with 3 paragraphs and put it on a plinth you have the right to slap me.

Now this is not to say you must make all art for all people on all levels, nor is it to say art should not come from the deeply personal. You should absolutely speak to your niche, your specialism. You should explore and work through that personal experience in your art.

But you should also take a step back. Look at it from outsiders point of view, will they see what you see, have you communicated the reason for your tears, or just cried on the page? It's fine if all you intend is to work through an emotion via creation, that's personal that's therapy, but if you want people to connect with that, if you want to attach a statement to the art about how it represents peoples journey, how you hope it helps someone else through heartbreak, then you need to leave room for them in that work. To do that you need to take a step back, to look and see if you've left room in your work for another to walk without your inherent knowledge of the path.

I'm not trying to reduce your art or your practice to a marketing game where you check your work against audience metrics, feelings still fuel art, not focus groups. What i am saying is that by looking at your work in the greater context, not just of the art world, but of the worlds of others, by removing your ego from the equation, you will find your art grow and so its ability to connect with and to hold space for others, grows to.

(Adrien Brody - Honestly no idea what this piece is titled, probably something like "Ego death in a 1988 New York alley")