Valentina Calore

Idk if this is a hot take but I think the "LoOK who's an 'ARTist' again now that ETH is UP?" tweets are trash If you (as an artist) "stayed" while the digital art market was in shambles and managed to sustain yourself while honing your craft, that's fucking great If you "left" to sustain yourself with commercial work or a day job that let you keep honing your craft, that's great too That kind of cultish energy that made 2021 what it was is a big part of the source material for the PTSD (or stockholm syndrome) that afflicts/ed so many It's a reality distortion field Good for some things (eg. buying + bonding) Bad for others (eg. rationality + wellbeing) Of course there are outliers, we all know them Those that swooped in, larped as visionaries, made a bag and disappeared into the sunset while our home fell to ruins But I'm not talking about them here, because well...why the fuck would I? They don't care if you call them out — they did what they wanted to do and you can safely bet on them attempting to do it again The people I'm talking about are the ones these myopic takes will actually affect The artists that did well and then had to pivot when the well dried The artists that stepped back from this app + crypto to go open galleries in their home towns, get right with their health, make documentaries and self funded world tours to promote them, or pick up commercial gigs & regular jobs to provide for their families while they kept making art in the time they could afford to Their lives were always broader than crypto, as ours are too (whether we act like it or not) To these folks, welcome back! You were earlier to this space than 99% of your contemporaries, you meaningfully contributed to a movement and then did what you had to do to one day return and be alright in the interim Did you miss out on things while you were gone, including the hardships of those that stayed? For sure, and it’s probably best to be cognizant of that But we missed out on what you were up to, what you had to go through and, for any of us are being somewhat rational — we're ultimately just happy you're here again Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging anyone for being butthurt by those that did well while the going was good then left to presumably run it back when it gets “easier” again Feeling and behaving that way is human As is survival