diamonds from ash

i love art.

but what ‘art’ means is variable, sometimes pretty wildly, between different people. so what i mean is: i love the entire creative process.

when i commission artwork and we – the artist and i – reach an agreement about what the end product will be in the future? that is part of the process.

when the artist sends me a sketch and i provide feedback, or just approval to continue, that exchange is also part of the process.

so when i receive the finished artwork, it is more than just an image. it is the culmination of conversations, time, and – albeit not on my part – a great deal of work. every brush stroke, regardless of whether it is a digital or physical medium, represents a decision, the realized will of the artist. every bit of it is filled with intent – human intent.

i love art, not merely for what it is – in a snapshot – but the entire creative process that snapshot represents.

i love to see other processes as well, not just the ones that i have a hand in; and since my ability to move around and travel is limited, live-streamed content must suffice.

i love to see streamers streaming art as they sketch, as they line or color or touch it up. i love to see works in progress. i love to hear people explain their process; i love to see them silently working, focused, as i imagine the gears turning silently in their mind.

Nor is this limited to visual arts. i love to see people lay bare their process, whether as an instructional moment or simply because they want the company of an audience while they create. i love to watch them arrange notes on instrumentation tracks, or write and edit lines of code – assembling model kits, painting miniatures; all of this is the creative process, all of it is the hand of individual will acting. and i love to see it.

even if i never see the final product, i know it will contain all that work, all that time spent. and to have peered into that, to know part of that story, is a beautiful thing; it is perhaps the most beautiful part of art itself. not the end alone, but the entire journey; even if you only glimpsed a small portion of that winding path.

art streams are regrettably not the most popular thing, as content goes, so many streamers forgo them in favor of more profitable work to attract a larger audience. this is perfectly understandable given the conditions of society, and i would never presume to judge someone because they need to survive. but if someone i follow wants to expose their process, i will give them my time just as i would if they were streaming anything else; and perhaps all the more readily, for the sake of art.