Frustration Friday – Appreciate the Artist

It's frustration friday and it's time to rant.

Let's talk artists.  No, not in the negative.  In fact, I actually think artists get too little respect and too much B.S. from people.  So, that's the subject.

Artists could use more respect.



If there's a geeky profession I see dissed too often it's artists.  They're impractacal, or they're posers, or they're not doing "real" jobs, or they're unoriginal – and of course they're just stupid because they are in a job that won't make them rich.

You get the idea.  Artists can use more respect.

Go into a bookstore.  See all those book covers?  Artists made them.

Like comics and manga – artists.

Video games?  Artists design characters, textures, models, and more.

Like animation – well, duh, that's a given.

Think how much of your environment has been jazzed up by artists, from paintings to sculpture, to just clever use of good carpet and the right furniture.

Artists do a lot.  If anything I think we take them for granted since their work is everywhere.  We get used to it.

There are also very successful artists.  We just don't always know their names unless they have some prominent work.  We don't think about the person who decorated the hotel lobby, we don't read the credits for texture design in our video games, we don't think more than five seconds about the book cover that drew our attention.  They're working away and we forget about them – but they're there working hard and paying the bills and being successful.

So you know what?  If you're an artist or know one, the next time someone disses an artist or doesn't appreciate them, set them straight.

– Steven Savage