I've always been aware that there's a seemingly infinite number of superior artists out there, but the internet goes out of its way to show you *how* superior they really are.
If I drew because I wanted to impress others or I drew because I thought the world needed what I was doing I would have given up by this point.
Thankfully I draw for the purely self serving reason that I enjoy it immensely.
And it's nice how the most compelling reasons for doing things are usually selfish ones.
...
Actually selflessness is something I've been finding more annoying recently. Or, rather "selflessness".
I have no problem with people being nice or giving to charity or helping out if they feel that help is needed in any situation.
But to do something that is "selfless" only because you feel that you need to is tiresome.
To do it because you feel that someone else will be upset if you don't, or upset if you do, to compromise your own time or ambitions because it's the "right thing to do" just leads to built up resentment and passive aggressive behavior.
And stress is so overrated.
2 comments:
But those artists are older than you think! and most don't have their work up from their early 20s! It's all, I believe, in how you apply yourself to your work. There are some artists who improve very quickly within the matter of a year and others that take years to. You have a great improvement speed which is clearly notable :D so keep hitting that photoshop and keep on drawing (and coloring!!!!) mister! :3
I think we wouldn't be artists if it were not for the enjoyment we get from creating.
And in terms of selflessness, some times you can't be altruistic if it's infinitely counter productive to you. And as you said you'll just end up building resentment for said person(s) because you honestly don't want to do it.
You should read Ayn Rand's The Virtue of selfishness. Good quote from it:
"The practical implementation of friendship, affection and love consists of incorporating the welfare (the rational welfare) of the person involved into one’s own hierarchy of values, then acting accordingly."
"One gains a profoundly personal, selfish joy from the mere existence of the person one loves. It is one’s own personal, selfish happiness that one seeks, earns and derives from love.
A “selfless,” “disinterested” love is a contradiction in terms: it means that one is indifferent to that which one values.
Concern for the welfare of those one loves is a rational part of one’s selfish interests. If a man who is passionately in love with his wife spends a fortune to cure her of a dangerous illness, it would be absurd to claim that he does it as a “sacrifice” for her sake, not his own, and that it makes no difference to him, personally and selfishly, whether she lives or dies."
your comments on selflessness are interesting, i propose that it probably isn't true selflessness if a person succumbs to passive aggressive or resentful behavior...maybe the opposite i suppose.
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