What Are You Passionate About?

What are you most passionate about?

Why do people want to hear what you have to say?

Why do people like your art?

What’s the point of what you do?

What are you here for?

Why should we care about you?

Make us care about you.

I care about politics

I’m passionate about people

Trying to tell stories about everyone

Means reading stories about everything

To learn the world through others

Letting me teach it again

Out of adoration for the stories we tell

I don’t even know what I have to say

Nothing that hasn’t been said a thousand times

But maybe it’s not about what I say

But how I say the things they don’t want to hear.

I can sugar-coat the terrible things

And that way they can swallow them

While I sit in complicit silence about reality’s bitterness

They say I’m authentic,

I don’t do it for brownie points,

They can tell that I do it for me

It’s real and it’s a talent

And I should be proud of it

Because it’s obvious I worked so hard

They think that I don’t do it for them

I say I want to teach or to learn

But sometimes it’s the only thing keeping me sane

Because crafting it makes it unreal

So, there’s no point so much as rhyme and rhythm

And it’s starting to get repetitious

Which means I have to get creative

Or at least start to say something

I’m just trying to keep my head on my shoulders

I have places that I want to be,

And I have goals that I want to achieve

But most of them are fantasies

And this is me trying to grab them between my fingers

I stand here before you, asking for your attention

And knowing that I have to ask for something more

Please like me

Please think I’m funny

Please don’t throw me away

Please find value in my art

Please think I’m introspective

Please understand my point

Please care about me

I can’t make you care about me

I can’t even make you look at me

But I’m jumping and screaming

So that you’ll at least be curious enough

To glance up from your screen for a second

And maybe you’ll get a glimpse of me

That will somehow move your heart

Look At Me.

Why do people like our art? I think it might be the truth we try to pile into every piece. We are hidden within each work we make. So, it’s only natural that we start to ask how we make it into a livelihood. How do we convince people that our work is something to pay for, without compromising the authenticity they see in the pieces we make?

Ultimately, I think the ideal answer would be to publish works and be compensated based on reads and tips. The problem is that this system requires a following and promotion to keep itself afloat. It isn’t sustainable for a small author.

The solution to that is also seemingly quite simple: Develop a following. This takes time, dedication, and resources. These are in short supply for a lot of artists, especially with how divided everyone’s attention is on the internet.

Regardless we all still work away at it. We read each other’s work for the sake of community. We share each other’s stories, and websites, and art. We read each other’s journals and share advice when we have it.

I suppose, ideally, I wouldn’t have to monetise my art. However, since we have to sustain ourselves in this economic system, I try to do it through my community as much as possible.