MAKE ART ANYWAY

I'm not sure about you, but I am trying hard to not drown from the effects of [gestures at everything]. It's really easy to give in to overwhelm, but I'm going to remind you of your power (also talking to myself right now, we've got this!!!).

Cory Booker just said "Let that fear bring about your courage," during his 21+ hour filibuster (he's still going as I write this!!!). I think this phrasing snapped me out of the fog a bit - we can do hard things. It can be so difficult to know which way forward is right, but the truth is that any direction you can move forward is better than staying frozen. No one knows how to handle this, but doing nothing enables it.

But I'm an artist, what can art do for social movements? Remember that in. the 1960s, musicians hugely impacted the civil rights movement by refusing to play to segregated crowds. Remember Mr. Rogers and how art shapes our reality. Remember all the times a piece of art moved something deep within you and sparked a new action. Remember all the times in a day that you interact with human-made things, and the value it brings to each moment. Remember that sometimes courage is simply refusing to give up your place in the room, you deserve to be there too.

This was "illegal", and was a radical act that helped others follow in making real change

Let this image become vivid in your mind - we are collectively standing on a big, metaphorical plank, and meanwhile these tyrannical leaders are standing on the other side, looming over a metaphorical cliff. Our weight on this plank keeps them in place. Hypothetically of course, I wonder what would happen if we shifted our collective weight elsewhere.

Now, I don't know about you, but as someone who has been making art and uploading it to the internet for the last 15 years, I'm also trying really hard to not crash out over generative AI - a software which has been trained on our stolen data, is disproportionately bad for the environment, and emboldens its prompt-inputters to call themselves "artists" as they gleefully "create" things out of fragments of everything actual artists have gone through the trenches to make. Regardless of where this goes, I know that it will prove to be extremely valuable to preserve your own ability to think and imagine, free of machine learning.

If Generative AI has proven anything, its that making art and being an artist is a tremendous service to humanity. They literally stole it all because it provides such huge value to us! It can feel futile to compete with these machines, but I am reframing it as my own challenge to rise above. A new fear that creates courage. We have to get even more creative. We can bring magic to reality with our art, and we can log off these devices that control us. Go to a local show and meet your community, go to a farmers market and give cash directly to the person who grew your food, go to a library and learn about something you never previously meant to, go to an artisan and get a beautiful, useful object that actually lasts.

Remember that this tech is fundamentally flawed, and not mandated or required!

A quick aside for the beautiful poetry hiding in the fact that the first human art was cave paintings of traced human hands, and now AI can't even accurately render human hands. Start thinking out of the box, because this tech inherently exists in a box (that we as artists made in the first place).

So many of these pervasive issues are going for the same thing - our critical thought. Educated, critical thinkers are not as easy to control or exploit. Of course shareholders cannot see the value in artistry - they want to make their bottom line shrink and create more wealth for themselves. When you realize this is the common thread between everything, you can see clearly why everything feels broken. We can rise above it, but we have to do our part. We are automatically complying due to fatigue from so much at once, and we need to disrupt this pattern by recognizing all we are capable of. Making art helps us find our own voice and connect back with our humanity. We are not here just to line shareholders pockets.

Our greatest power lies in where we put our attention. You know how you can win your attention back? By diving in deep and making something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your art doesn't need to be in museums or galleries to have value. It doesn't even have to be "good." The value and magic is hidden in the process. Typing prompts will never reveal this magic or be fulfilling. Sitting with this process will make you recognize the huge grey area that exists between "good" and "bad."

Literally making art and keeping yourself occupied with your own whims is the most immediate way you can take your own power back. The voice in your head isn't bad, it's pushing you to the things that matter if you listen with discernment.

Artists have the unique ability to show others a vision of a better future. We can imagine new things, make things that represent those ideas, and we can help others imagine how to get there. It's time to dream!

I might be 10 years late to the party, but I made my first vlog. Why? Because it was a whim that sounded fun - and it was fun! That's the ultimate point here - make art because it's fun. For more reasons to create, along with some odd history you may not know, watch my esoteric rant about "Why you should make an album!".

If you need more to help cope with existence, and alchemize these feelings, check out my album "You're Hardly Here." It's more relevant now than ever, it's about rising from a place of fear, and ultimately claiming and owning your courage.

I know we can all win, and I'm not going to stop finding ways to get that message out there. If you feel like no one's rooting for you, remember that I am!

LISTEN TO SAND BOX NOW ANYWHERE YOU STREAM, AND DON'T MISS ANYTHING BY SIGNING UP FOR OUR MAILING LIST NOW!

Written by Kylie Hazzard