#having a time of things lately

[inkskinned]

at some point it's just like. do they even fucking like the thing they're asking AI to make? "oh we'll just use AI for all the scripts" "we'll just use AI for art" "no worries AI can write this book" "oh, AI could easily design this"

like... it's so clear they've never stood in the middle of an art museum and felt like crying, looking at a piece that somehow cuts into your marrow even though the artist and you are separated by space and time. they've never looked at a poem - once, twice, three times - just because the words feel like a fired gun, something too-close, clanging behind your eyes. they've never gotten to the end of the movie and had to arrive, blinking, back into their body, laughing a little because they were holding their breath without realizing.

"oh AI can mimic style" "AI can mimic emotion" "AI can mimic you and your job is almost gone, kid."

... how do i explain to you - you can make AI that does a perfect job of imitating me. you could disseminate it through the entire world and make so much money, using my works and my ideas and my everything.

and i'd still keep writing.

i don't know there's a word for it. in high school, we become aware that the way we feel about our artform is a cliche - it's like breathing. over and over, artists all feel the same thing. "i write because i need to" and "my music is how i speak" and "i make art because it's either that or i stop existing." it is such a common experience, the violence and immediacy we mean behind it is like breathing to me - comes out like a useless understatement. it's a cliche because we all feel it, not because the experience isn't actually persistent. so many of us have this ... fluttering urgency behind our ribs.

i'm not doing it for the money. for a star on the ground in some city i've never visited. i am doing it because when i was seven i started taking notebooks with me on walks. i am doing it because in second grade i wrote a poem and stood up in front of my whole class to read it out while i shook with nerves. i am doing it because i spent high school scribbling all my feelings down. i am doing it for the 16 year old me and the 18 year old me and the today-me, how we can never put the pen down. you can take me down to a subatomic layer, eviscerate me - and never find the source of it; it is of me. when i was 19 i named this blog inkskinned because i was dramatic and lonely and it felt like the only thing that was actually permanently-true about me was that this is what is inside of me, that the words come up over everything, coat everything, bloom their little twilight arias into every nook and corner and alley

"we're gonna replace you". that is okay. you think that i am writing to fill a space. that someone said JOB OPENING: Writer Needed, and i wrote to answer. you think one raindrop replaces another, and i think they're both just falling. you think art has a place, that is simply arrives on walls when it is needed, that is only ever on demand, perfect, easily requested. you see "audience spending" and "marketability" and "multi-line merch opportunity"

and i see a kid drowning. i am writing to make her a boat. i am writing because what used to be a river raft has long become a fully-rigged ship. i am writing because you can fucking rip this out of my cold dead clammy hands and i will still come back as a ghost and i will still be penning poems about it.

it isn't even love. the word we use the most i think is "passion". devotion, obsession, necessity. my favorite little fact about the magic of artists - "abracadabra" means i create as i speak. we make because it sluices out of us. because we look down and our hands are somehow already busy. because it was the first thing we knew and it is our backbone and heartbreak and everything. because we have given up well-paying jobs and a "real life" and the approval of our parents. we create because - the cliche again. it's like breathing. we create because we must.

you create because you're greedy.

[liyrical]

post-valentines chocolate munch

[caemidraws]

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[insanechayne]

~ ~ ~

[hinamie]

*catboys ur shounen protag*

[skellagirl]

played DA2 for the first time and romanced the possessed bisexual poor little meow meow who's totally down for firebombing a walmart

[egophiliac]

so excited for Kalim to save the day by swiper-no-swiping this dip. you can do it! I believe in you!

god I hope this reads properly

[artsymeeshee]

forgot I drew this a long while back :’)

[arsenicflame]

Bonus round! Do you use a queue tag?

[why-the-heck-not]

the saturday-sunday night diabolical "life is falling apart"- to do list followed by a mad scramble

[endermagpieart]

What do you mean I’m a bit late for Janus’ big day? Of course not, how could you say such a thing! I definitely didn’t forget all about it in my absence and only get reminded in the incorrect quotes video live chat; that’s not like me at all ;]

Anyways I decided to dress our sassy snake in some different outfits I think he’d like. He seems like the type to get all dolled up on his birthday and it goes with Thomas posting pics in outfits inspired by the sides on their appreciation days!

@thatsthat24

[typing-catastrophe]

ford falling for younger!reader and writing page after page full of notes about you

after bill (and 30 years of multiverse travel - depending where you want this scenario to be set) he is soo paranoid and sceptical about someone liking him and genuinely being kind towards him

he doesn't even have to know you're interested in him, just you being nice and warm and all smiles and considerate is enough

(hopelessly in love ford would call you "prince/ss unattainabelle", because he thinks he can't ever have you) yes I already wrote that in my other post sue me

ford calling you a siren and a succubus/incubus in his journals and saying you bewitched him and that he has to figure out how to break your spell

but he actually maybe doesn't want to do that because you actually make him feel good and loved and like he's not the worst and can be forgiven for everything he did

and you don't seem to have any kind of greater plan and stan and the kids like you and you're so nice to them too

and oh no, maybe he really just is falling for you

[snarkspawn]

tchk.

[wayward-wren]

I might regret this but rogue squadron I am challenging you.

For every fifty notes this post makes I will dedicate half an hour to working on a Hobby Thing.

Hobby Things include:

Writing

Reading

Watching a TV show or movie

Knitting/crochet project

Cosplay/sewing projects

Walking/exploring

Baking/cooking

Playing a video game

These are fun things I want to do but struggle to start because I'm bad at letting myself relax, so if y'all hold me accountable it might help.

I may turn notifications off for this post but I will keep a record of how many notes it has and check it often.

You're free and welcome to suggest which of the above Hobby Things I should dedicate that particular half hour to.

Godspeed

💜💙💛

Now with added Spreadsheet so you can see what I've been up to!

[eddie-munson-is-my-wife]

Snonk mimimimi…

[that-g3-artist]

trying out pixel art for the first time! here's the boys in the style of four swords/minish cap!