Art For Art's Sake

God Created The Earth In Seven Days, And He Didn’t Even Get Paid For It

This probably won’t surprise anyone, but I drew a lot as a kid. On every scrap of paper I could find, in the margins of every school jotter, in MS Paint (ask your parents.) This is not too unusual, drawing is a good way for kids to express themselves. The older I got, the more these drawings had to have meaning in some way, had to exist for a reason. The further I got through school, the more (mostly self-inflicted) pressure I had that my creative endeavours had to be moving towards something, an end goal of some kind.

School is largely centred around shaping young minds and pointing them in the direction that their lifelong career might take. Once it became clear that I wanted to keep drawing as much as I could, then I had to steer my creativity into making a living out of it. No longer could I draw just for fun, I had to draw things that might convince someone down the line to give me money for drawing.

I was very lucky, I had a supportive family and - somehow, despite not being as technically skilled as others - the will to keep making things whenever I could. I went to university to explore a creative career, and after about a decade of floundering, got to a point where I can confidently say my job is “artist”.

But I often think to myself, what if I had decided on another career option? What if the road towards making a living from my own creativity seemed too difficult and I had to just go be a used car salesman or something?

Would I have just…stopped creating?

I notice my two young kids like to be creative. No one taught them how to be creative, it’s instinctual. Put a pencil in their hand and they will make a mark they find pretty, or, given enough time, a crude representation of the world as they see it. I do not think this is hereditary, it appears to be universal. Expressing oneself in this fashion is a basic human trait - after things like being fed or sheltered, you could even say being creative is a need.

When I was younger, I assumed everyone would want a creative job of some kind. Art and music were favourite subjects for many, but over time, most children drop these from their life in favour of more realistic career options. Doctor is what kids settle for when they can’t be a rock star.

And we need doctors, we do. Please, kids reading this, some of you become doctors. Be anything you want to be! Here’s the point, the part you skimmed eight paragraphs to get to:

Just because creating doesn’t make you money, doesn’t mean you have to stop creating.

Capitalism has taught people that the only value in creation is monetary - if you have a creative hobby and you’re good enough at it, you’re encouraged to make it a side hustle. Sell your drawings as prints, take on crochet commissions, turn your joy into a business. It’s not enough to fulfil your own creative urges, it has to provide an income too.

One downside of this is that people tell themselves that if their creative work isn’t up to a professional, sellable standard, then therefore it is worthless, and not worth doing. I see artists give up on the thing that makes them happy just because they don’t think they can ever live up to the impossible standards they set. If they cannot make it into a sustainable job, they stop completely. The more I see this, the more it bums me out.

Years ago I came across some drawings my mum did in her youth, and I was amazed by them! She could draw better than I could at that age, but she never chose to pursue a career in that field. Life just kind of…happened, instead. And she seemed to enjoy it. But now in her retirement, she has taken up painting. There’s no end goal to it, she just paints when she can for fun. I can’t help but wonder if she should have been enjoying this creative part of her spirit the whole time.

I think this is typical of a lot of people. People generally don’t see themselves as “artists”, that’s a term reserved for pretentious elites discussing existentialism in a Parisian gallery, so they avoid that part of the human experience completely. But anyone can make things, regardless of how it turns out.

If my career had gone a different way, I don’t know if I’d still be drawing. I wouldn’t be as good at it (it takes a lot of practise to be as slightly-above-mediocre as me), so I’d probably not have the drive to do it as much. It’s a shame, because being creative tickles my brain in a good way, and I feel sorry for the alternate universe me that doesn’t get to enjoy it.

I hope you, the person reading this, are not the alternate universe version of yourself, denying yourself joy because you think it would be a waste of time. Joy is never a waste of time.

I give you permission to make lots of bad art. Do not worry about the end result, whether it’s worthy of being put on the fridge. Enjoy the process, the freedom that we as humans have to filter the world through our unique lens and re-express it in whatever form we desire. Go to a pottery class, or scribble on the back of a receipt, or download a music sequencer, just to see what happens. You’re not gonna make your millions from it. But you might enjoy it.

Legend of the Mole-Man, Pages 41-44

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Every Simpsons Character Ever #0377 - Artie Ziff

A double-whammy of significant appearances here - not only is Artie Ziff a notable character with multiple episodes, but this is the first time Jon Lovitz voices a Simpsons character!

Were it not for Rainier Wolfcastle's brief cameo at the start of the episode, Ziff would be the most important addition to the Simpsons canon from "The Way We Was". It's easy to dismiss him because most of his appearances are after the "golden era" of the show, but by my count he has a speaking role in seven episodes - more than a lot of other beloved and memorable characters - and is briefly referenced in a few others. Unlike a lot of characters, most of his episodes actually centre around him in some way too.

His only other appearance in the first ten seasons is in season 4's "The Front", where he is not fully established beyond his "The Way We Was" details, and so he looks slightly different and is voiced by Castellaneta instead of Lovitz (for the first and only time.)

But in future episodes such as "Half-Decent Proposal" (season 13) and "The Ziff Who Came To Dinner" (season 15), we see what happened to Ziff after high-school, where he builds and eventually loses his software company, Ziffcorp, and still pines for Marge. This in turn leads to a strange twist in season 31's "Hail To The Teeth" (his most recent appearance to date,) in which he builds a fleet of Marge robots to make Marge believe they were meant to be together. It's a tale as old as time.

Ziff is a recognisable character, but I doubt he's anyone's favourite character. He's slimy and scheming and attempts to sexually assault Marge the first time we meet him. But he's a useful story tool to have for some of these later episodes, and Lovitz performs the part well - this is his most repeated character.

Incidentally, I chose to draw him as he appears in "The Way We Was", as I assume that's how most people picture him. He appears more as an adult through the rest of the show, but if Artie has a "classic" design it's his afroed teenage self. I'll probably cover his other appearances as we get to them - like I said, he next appears in season 4, so we will get to that...eventually.

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