AITA for refusing to “support” beginner artists?
Hello Reddit. I’m a 23 year old artist. I started seriously studying art when I was 10. I tried making a social media account for my art when I was 13 but it didn’t take me long to realize I did not yet have the skill to earn a following. instead of let that crush my motivation I decided to make it my motivation. I deleted social media and focused on growth.
fast forward to when I was 19, my art has improved 10 fold. I decided to join an art competition hosted by a big brand well known in the art community (won’t name specifics). I submitted a big fantasy landscape and spent over 20 hours on it. It was a culmination of all my studies and hard work. Let me first say I DO NOT THINK I DESERVED THE WIN. there were plenary of submissions that were way better than mine but when the results came back I was very upset. One of the winners was a piece that looked like it was made in 10 minutes by a 5 year old in microsoft paint. Colors were not harmonious, composition was nonexistent, and the piece didn’t even match the theme set for the competition. The reason this upset me so much is because one of the criteria of judging the art was supposed to be technical skill. This piece was off theme with little to no technical skill!! I was upset not only for my self but all the other artists with incredible submissions who obviously worked very hard to reach their skill level. All our hard work meant nothing because “you don’t want to discourage beginner artists“ so let the beginners win.
I later watched a video by an art YouTuber I adore who had joined a different competition held by another huge art company and YouTuber was showcasing the winners and the runner ups (YouTuber was not among either) and the winners again had way less technical skill then many of the other submissions including the YouTuber who you could tell was trying to hold back their true feelings on the winners.
So around this same time I started a social media account for my art and after two years of consistent posts, I never reached 100 followers. But I’d see beginners with very little experience who had just started learning art amassing 100s of followers in a couple weeks because “gotta support beginner artists“.
When I was a beginner, supporting a beginner meant constructive criticism, words of affirmation, and encouragement with goals. beginners didn’t get a following or win competitions, you had to work hard and earn it. Now that I’ve worked hard to earn it, the opposite is true. Beginners get lots of followers and commissions, and they get to win the art competitions because “you gotta encourage the beginners” but what about the artists who have worked hard to earn all that. where’s their reward? In sports competitions the winners are the ones who work the hardest and have the most skill, why is art any different???
So AITA for refusing to support beginner artists in the same way everyone else does nowadays?