3/14/2026 Creation Batch & Essay

Every time I sit down and prepare myself to work on my art "from a business" standpoint, I get disgusted.

Perhaps it's because I already have a career separate from my art, and in that career I know I must understand metrics, categorization, quantification, networking, etc.

I'm very aware that the key to being successful is analyzing data and trends; seeing what is going to make my company profitable and what won't. For 50–60 hours a week I basically live in Microsoft Excel and manage a team of five people with the same motive.

Business, after all, is the art of making money.

But when I think about mimicking these behaviors for my art I become difficult. My resistance to playing that game in the creative world increases tenfold. I become a cat perched on the highest point in the house, looking down upon the galleries, social media platforms, and agents whose asses I should probably be kissing to increase my visibility. But it is not an "I don't need you" mentality. It is an "I don't want you" mentality.

I don't want to play the algorithm game on Instagram and compete with the people who become servants to the platform. The artists who would instantly give up their art if all likes, views, and external validation immediately stopped.

The problem with optimizing art for attention is that attention slowly becomes the goal and the purity of the work becomes secondary. Decisions begin to revolve around what performs well instead of what feels necessary.

I already spend most of my life inside a world driven by numbers, efficiency, and growth curves because that world has its place. It keeps companies alive and people employed so that they may live. I understand it, and I participate in it every day.

But when I sit down to create, I refuse to bring that world with me. The taint of business motivation will never reach my studio.

Art, to me, is not a strategy. It is not a brand optimization exercise. It is not a system to be played. It's something far older and far more stubborn than that.

If the algorithm likes the work, then great. But if it doesn't, my work will continue to exist anyway.

Meanwhile....

I'm continuing to struggle with finding my place in the medium of oil paint. My goal is to bring the same certainty and emotional drive that I have with sketches and paper onto a canvas.

One sitting.

One confident brush stroke.

One painting.

If I lose the passion for the plot of a painting before it's finished, then it's done. I cannot resurrect the same energy that accompanies me when I first start putting an idea on a canvas.

It's frustrating because I know these are technique issues. I must continue to hone my oil painting skills.

This is the full text post from my Patreon, but only includes a few, low quality examples of my recent creations. To see the full gallery of works from this post, check out my Patreon!