Who am I? I am both nobody and somebody.

[avphibes]

 So part of where my thought process came from in the previous post is the fact that, everything I've done for the past few years, even if i got paid for it, hasn't felt particularly "real."  If you've been reading for awhile, you've surely noticed that every year since 2005, I've described my activities as "dicking around."

What happened in 2005

Comments

[radiumhead]

Hey-if your main source of income is art-(and it seems like it is, or was)-that's a pretty big accomplishment.

[avphibes]

It is in that not all that many people who want to do it can do it. But then I question: Why have made money making art?

I don't think it's because I"m particularly exceptional or prolific at doing art. I think it's because I have a good eye for cultural trends, am organized enough to run a business, made good connections, took certain financial risks in "getting myself out there" and had good luck with timing.

I guess I've just been trying to dissect things and figure out what's what. Success is based on so many things other than one's talents or ability.

[radiumhead]

Of course, that's totally what is is, you need all of those things, plus talent-talent alone doesnt
do it. Unless you're like, the most talented artist in the world, and someone "discovers" you and does the marketing work for you, but how many people does that happen to, like one in a million?

[avphibes]

I dunno. I feel like people should be good at the things they do or their success will only last as long as they're hustling... and hustling gets exhausting.

[altamira16]

This is interesting because I always thought that you must have this amazing life, and I wanted my friend who is scraping by as an artist to market herself better. She is a really talented comic book artist.

Since you are posting this on the internet, you are supposed to add a cat picture to make us pay attention, no?

[avphibes]

Ha... My life is kind of amazing but maybe not in the ways, or for the reasons people think. I was very sold on my own mythology for awhile, but now I almost feel remorseful about it. I feel like there needs to be more straight talk about what's really what.

Ask me a question! I will tell you the truth!

Also, I couldn't find a kitten picture that properly captures "professional ambivalence."

[editer]

[avphibes]

Perfect!

[editer]

One tenet of "positive psychology" is that we do better if we focus on our strengths and don't spend time trying to improve our weak areas. I've found this to be a useful and worthwhile approach. So, yes, consider what you're good at, and do that as much as possible.

[avphibes]

Yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at. At one point I was freaking out that my web-design skills were all crappy and out of date and I thought I had to improve that, but then I realized that I can't get that into code and I'm never going to be that great at it and you can hire people to do it for you, so why bother?

[bunnyhero]

hmm, i like that.

[bunnyhero]

my own biggest success was by fluke, the result of just dicking around. however it has fallen off in popularity drastically, mainly because i found it difficult to transition that work from 'dicking around' to actually working hard on it.

i don't know if anything else i will do will catch on again like that. in the meantime i am back to doing contract work to support myself, which isn't nearly as much fun. i approve of your dicking around lifestyle and need to do that myself more :)

[avphibes]

yeah, my big financial success was from getting in early on the Cel-phone wallpaper thing... unfortunately, the market got over-saturated fast and smart phone is kind of killing it off. So, at that point, working my ass off on it was meaningless because it wasn't really going to make a difference.

There's really so much randomness involved. Sometimes I feel like every success I've had was 90% luck.

[bunnyhero]

So, at that point, working my ass off on it was meaningless because it wasn't really going to make a difference
yeah, that's probably the case with my own site, too-- widgets aren't the big thing any more on social networks compared to multiplayer games/apps (farmville, pet society etc). and i'm not well-equipped to create one of those, especially on my own.

[avphibes]

Oh, and I still have to do freelance... today I am designing prints for bag linings. That's one of those non-exciting things that I often omit.

Hey now....

[devils_tool]

I'll say that your Evilkid stuff (and the site) still totally are kick ass (except for all those links that go nowhere) and I wish you'd go even further with it. Look at COOP, he pretty much does what he wants to now because of that one smoking devil head sticker.

Hell, maybe I should commission you to draw me a tattoo - mmmm........

Okay anyway.....

Some of it may never feel real. Creative people generally have this same problem unless they're only good at ONE THING. My suggestion would be to enjoy what you do and quit worrying about how to define yourself - if you have to define yourself, try defining what you're NOT.

You're not a nine to fiver.

You're not boring.

You don't have only one role in life.

Etc, etc....

Re: Hey now....

[avphibes]

yeah, the plan for evilkid.com is actually to do LESS with it. Make it more concise...less broken links!