Started on this painting of a person holding a flower. Thought about stacking more layers to differentiate between foreground middle and background. The airbrush is a pretty simple tool to achieve this.
I've also begun to edit in some snippets of videos from my life into my shorts. There isn't really some broader goal from this to trick the algorithm or anything. Just was editing my normal process I'd and thought “what if I just put this video of me at the park in there”?. It's strange that as artists now were expected to also be social media managers, and “content” producers. Some smart people have probably investigated this in depth. However as far as contemporary art is concerned, there's actually not a lot of overlap between the high brow world and the peasants on Instagram. Some of my favorite painters aren't even there. And of course, for younger people that see most of their art online, fed to them by an algorithm based on what it's thinks they'll like and how long they'll stay on the platform. It's almost as if this algorithm has become a curator for all that we see. It's also one reason I still love libraries.
Also, as someone who makes paintings and tiktok videos of paintings. I can't help but think of the performative aspect of painting as it relates to these short form videos. Watching people paint isn't anything new. From painters performing at wine tastings or even those guys in Las Vegas who dance and paint jimi hendrix or something. For some reason, people like to watch people paint. Anyway, I think that tiktok and Instagram are likely also dictating how paintings look. Certainly those that feed their algorithms in the right way are rewarded for it. And artists are susceptible to encouragement. It can make them take the wrong roads, and defy their own vision.
At the same time. It's often argued that artis communication and needs to connect. If this is the case then some art is simply better at doing this. Certain art resonates more than others, and those artists and that art is rewarded for it. This is very different than a gatekeeper dictating what's good, and in a way, tiktok and Instagram bypass it and let some artists connect directly with their supporters.
