The Art Of Art

I am going to start off with what I loved about my art. I started five years ago in a way to express my thoughts and feeling on situations. I primarily used a stick figure as the focal point of all art. The speaker as you will. As someone who has struggled with his weight his entire life, the stick figure actually was a perception that I wanted to see myself as a better image. I mean, I could have made a big circle with legs and arms. But alas, that was not my art.

At first it was just a bubble with thoughts. Political thoughts. Social issue thoughts. Daily thoughts. Just anything that I would tweet or write, I wanted on 140mm thick card stock.

I loved it. And I would share and I would get a lot of messages about owning it. As time went on, I got a little more intricate with it. I added stickers. there were specific stickers I would use. Rainbows were my favorite to add on. Then I would always add an animal in the bottom left corner to make a secondary comment to the stick figure, which was always me. It sounds funny, but people would ask me if they could have a custom piece with the stick figure saying something I would not ever say. And I never did that.

Then the art got more and more. I did political scenes. I got pretty good at creating RBG, Hillary Clinton, Matt Gaetz, 3 Toes, Barack, Joe Biden, and of course my favorite, Commander. I even drew Post Malone for a dear friend. I would do art to put people in a better place. Someone would ask me to make a piece for a loved one, and I would love those. I drew families. I did some sports teams. Celebrities own my art. One very famous person bought very early art to give to Jane Fonda. Beto O’Rourke autographed an art piece of him. So there was so much fun with it. I cannot tell you the passion I had to make people happy. So many parents with kids who suffered from depression would want my most sold piece “The Lies Of Depression And Anxiety”. And many got.

Those were the good parts of it.

But overall it was a very very hard experience for me. This is what I needed to survive, and I truly feel for every artist out there who has the courage to put their talent on the line. People are not kind. I commanded 200-400 a piece. I lowered my price many times. I had to. I had a family to feed, so when someone else has the upper hand and I am on defense, I will short change myself. but I learned that never works. Art is art. If someone can do it, then they need to. If they want to moan about a “stick figure” price, then make it themselves.

I could not sell my art on Ebay or Etsy. It was too controversial. On one depression piece I wrote “Depression is a lying asshole”. I got suspended for three days on Ebay for that. I would have auctions on a Trump piece and that would be taken down. I mean, I understand, but still. Etsy always took pieces off. So I was forced to sell on Twitter.

When you do that, you do not grow your brand. You become someone heavily muted. When you promote and RBG piece or a Trump piece, you basically get no traction compared to large accounts who are PACed and just say “like if you hate blah blah blah.” So my reach took a huge hit.

And I hated having to ask the same people to help me out and buy. I would message one woman six times a month to respond. I would have to argue with people over ten dollars. I was miserable. My good friend Sergio owns 70 of my art pieces. I mean, how many times can I ask him to buy my art?

My depression really went into overdrive. I felt worthless begging (or what felt like it) daily. I would get trolled by large accounts. I will never forget some actor went on for days about me. A former basketball player RTed one person to amplify his mocking of me. I dealt with this day in and day out. Yet, I did not care. My family means the world to me. The people who love my art mean the world to me. So I was luckily able to tune everyone else out. Not an easy task, but it happened.

But the one day that just made me quite was a woman who messaged me about her daughter attempting suicide and wanted a depression piece. I said I would give it to her and she said, no, she wanted to pay. So I told her what my art goes for, but I do not care about the offer. I just want to get my art to her. She said okay, I will think about it.

I tried to say there really is nothing to think about. I want to do this art for your daughter. it helps me daily. Just make me an offer since I already wanted to do this for free. I said “the ball is in your court.” She said “I DO NOT WANT YOUR FUCKING BALL IN MY COURT!”

Ok. I blocked her. and realized none of this is worth it anymore.

It is so draining to give and give yourself without anything back. Do not get me wrong, if you are reading this, I am sure we had a read good experience with art. But at the end of the day, it was not worth it to me. Putting yourself out there is truly not worth it at times.

But I am in a much better place. I sell sports cards for a living now. I have someone who believes in what I do. This person wants me to build my writing, and just wants me to be happy.

So the good outweighs the bad with art. I am going to be bringing it back exclusively here. I am not going to plead with you to buy it. Most of you know how to obtain a piece. But also, if you are a paid subscriber, chances are you will eventually get a piece of art for free. So in the next week, look for some new pieces I am working on.

I am very very glad that in the 15 years I have been online, I have touched thousands of lives. In my words, pictures, or just sharing my life. I am much more closed now than I was before kids. but I think more and more I will share some of the good things.

And lately, there are good things to share. they will be exhibited on some card stock very soon.

Thank you for reading. Please consider a paid subscription where you will get exclusive posts, art, chats, and more soon (rhymes with sports cards). Also, if you like what you see and want to donate/tip to my writing, would love so here. Thank you for being here.