Why I Keep Making Art (Even When It Feels Pointless)

On Doubt, Persistence, and Why Creating Always Matters

Opening Reflection

Obviously every photo I take won’t be in a magazine. Every movie I make won’t get a golden globe. Every piece of art made in this world sadly doesn’t land in a museum but that doesn’t mean creating is pointless. I do think that at times creating something can feel pointless just because it ends there for us. I don't think the goal of everything I create is to get in a magazine or to get in a museum or to be viral and seen by 1 billion people, but in reality it ends up being that so much of what we create as artist isn't seen.

When I am often talking to my friends about creating art, we are connecting creating content in the same conversation because we live in a world where if no one sees it it didn't really happen and you can't just make beautiful things and have it magically land in the right laps. You kind of have to create content in a way that brings people to all of the cool things that you create and make and from there, we are hoping that it goes somewhere beyond the first person that sees it or beyond the people that you and I know that see our art anyway because they already follow us.

I have never made anything that I felt like was pointless.

I have definitely finished making something and felt like I had to rush to the next thing just to keep up with with the Joneses of the Internet in a way. It's like you always have to be making something and have something already made at the same time. on the internet we want to see exactly what you are doing now and we want to be able to go back in time and look at all the cool stuff that you've done before.

My response to to these thoughts or these moments is to just keep on creating because I feel like the consistency of creating will end up in me getting all of the good looks that I want. I don't think that I am alone in this idea, but I do think that there are some people who will eventually just stop creating because things aren't going their way immediately and I'm afraid for what the world will look like if that's the majority of us that create things.

Plus, you never really know what you make that will resonate with people the most of my favorite photo projects. The main two are from like the 80s and 90s and these are both from photographers who are still alive and still take pictures and make art to this day but the projects they had that really resonate with me. The most is a lot of their old stuff so I'm afraid that like one day I may just stop showcasing this thing that I love doing because of old things not reaching the levels they wanna reach when in reality it reached somebody so deeply that it became their favorite photo or it became their favorite photo project or they love this photo book so much.

I will take a second to relate this to sports in a way. There are people who love Kobe Bryant when he was just outside of Philadelphia playing in high school and there are people who have no idea about Kobe Bryant being anywhere close to Philadelphia and they just know him from playing on the Lakers. I remember growing up in seeing footage of him in high school doing random stuff like going to prom and stuff like that and being able to connect with him because he he lived in a neighborhood that may be 30 minutes from mine in traffic, but that's the old things he creates in this example everyone loves him for all of the new things that he did.

The Struggle: Acknowledging the Doubts

Creating can fill pointless from a bunch of different reasons things like self-doubt, lack of recognition, and other external pressures. To me, it's mainly the lack of recognition. Simply put I feel like when I do cool things everyone should see them. That's one of my main battles with social media because I feel like the algorithm is kind of stop everyone from seeing the cool stuff that they like seeing. It's like these apps have a balance of showing your stuff to a bunch of random people and showing them to the people who already know you and follow you and I feel like it. It could be like a 50-50 but it's really like a 75-25 of people who don't know me or seeing my things on these apps and the people who have followed me for years have to search for me whenever I post something.

I can go on a tangent about my problems with social media at another time, but I feel like the lack of recognition that comes from that sometimes slows down my progress personally. From working in marketing and business, I kind of have an understanding on the returns that something should be getting and so when things aren't getting those returns, they shouldn't be a priority in theory. This doesn't work because consistently putting things out is what's going to make these algorithms bring people to you so it's like a give-and-take. I understand that I have a pointless problem here and I should probably just lock in for a little bit and keep pushing stuff out regardless of the outcome, but it's also discouraging to see.

This is a bit of a cry me a river type thing because I'm of understanding that this is a problem for all artists everywhere.

The Turning Point: What Keeps Me Going

The most fulfilling part of creating art for me is having an idea, understanding the process, and going through it start to finish. I think the point of art is to relate to people in some kind of way so if something starts at an idea for me and then I see it through and I get to see people see it and talk to them about how it relates to them, It's very fulfilling for me.

I often write to get things off of my mind whether it's songs, ideas, or post like this, and it helps me better understand myself. If I don't know the words to explain how I feel about a topic, but I am forcing myself to sit down and write about the topic, eventually I have to come up with the words.

This also explains why I enjoy seeing art so much because when I'm coming from that understanding of this person went through something that I may have went through and they want to figure out a relation point for us. It's very easy at least in my opinion to see the ideas and the thoughts behind art.

I enjoy talking about a Boston trip I took with my friends in 2022 and remembering that I have a bunch of pictures of that event that I can always look back on and just relive that moment. Because I am resonating with it that way I'm sure that my friends are resonating with it in that way or similar way as well. Just like I am sure that a random person off the street that comes and sees these pictures of me and my friends in Boston can relate to going on a trip with their friends in the fillings in the stories behind that.

I think making art is incredibly valuable. I won't say that it's valuable even if it's not seen or praised or monetized because I feel like it's always seen. To me if you put your heart out in the world in a way for that, everyone can see it. Someone will see it and resonate with it. It may just be one person. It may be a person that you know or don't know, and it may be someone who will never talk to you about how this art resonated with them. But I don't believe that no one sees the art. I don't believe that no one praises your heart ever when you put it out there for people to see it.

The painter, Mark Rothko would make 15-20 pieces just for one collection and then only end up using five of them. Does that mean that the other 10 to 15 pieces did it matter? No, that's what drove him to getting the perfect five.

How many pieces of art do you need to make to find the perfect few that changes everything? How many photos am I away from shooting vogue? How many no’s can you take before you get a yes is all that matters.

Art always matters. Even if it’s only seen by one person—someone you may never meet—it has the power to resonate, to connect. Every piece you create brings you closer to the one that could change everything.

I’m no expert, just an artist like you. But I believe that persistence is the secret.

Keep creating.