Most of you are aware that I joined the DeviantArt Website in order, mainly, to get high-quality covers for my Smashwords publications. But once I arrived there, I realized that I could fulfill another of my greatest interests: to create digital art. Some of the examples of things that could be done digitally (which I'm using in the sense of: not with actual oil and canvas, but using a computer), in ways I found fascinating, except for one aspect: the subject-matter.
Many of the artists on DA are very young. Not that I am dreadfully old, but I feel ancient compared to the extreme youth of these kids! I love them, and have gotten to know many of them, and many of them are aspiring writers, and many of them would be close friends, if we ever met, but the sources of their inspirations will forever be outside my own circle of interest. The many stories I see are brutally, and superficially, sexual.
I love to write erotica. I don't like to talk about erotica, because I think of erotica as a rather private thing. And the crudeness of described sexuality has to be, in my mind, moderated with gentleness, and emotion, and caring. These are ideas that would be considered too heavy for my friends on DA.
Even the mature adults on DA, even though they are certainly craftsmen of an incredibly high calibre, seem focused on their little niches, and are difficult to touch. Sometimes a random comment I make on some artwork pierces their shell of mechanical politeness (everyone on DA is polite to a fault, and I initially saw my remarks frowned upon), only to discover that we only had that tiny fragment of an area of discussion in common.
There are photographers who have access to absolutely beautiful models, some of them just stunning, among the most beautiful women I have seen anywhere. There are cosplayers, that is, people who like to dress up as characters from illustrated books or animated movies or games, or even the movies, and get themselves photographed. The art here is in the makeup, the costumes, the poses, etc. Above and beyond that, some of these people---mostly women, as it happens---are amazing actresses; they can portray an emotion that a scene requires just perfectly, to produce what we would call a tableau, a scene. But the concerns of these women are centered around wigs, and costumes, and makeup.
In a vague sense, DeviantArt is about artistic perversion, I believe, judging from the name of the website; somehow they have hit on the idea that, if they downplay the perversion aspect, they can make a lot of money by providing a forum in which digital images can be hosted and, ostensibly, discussed. Some commerce goes on on the site, from which the site makes an income.
I have learned an enormous amount by hanging around on DA. The people there are generous with their knowledge, and even with their Art. But until I learn to keep a certain distance from some of the art, which seduces me into thinking that I can relate to it extremely deeply, I am going to cause myself to bleed unnecessarily by bashing against artwork that was never intended to be bashed against!
You must take this post as what it is: a rant against having to be an objective art critic.
Kay H.B.
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