May '17

Hello, I want to talk about something I've noticed a couple times in the art community. Sometimes I've seen some kind of "toxic " behaviors among artists and by this I mean things as groups of artists getting together against others or instead of some good old fashion healthy competition or constructive feedback some envious or straight hateful behaviors almost like if they were trying to get rid of emerging artist and competence. This was a really quick example but now I would like to ask if any of you has ever witness or been target of such things, I create this because I want to hear different opinions and what do you think about this matter.
I encourage you all to leave your thoughts and opinions below.

May '17

No, I haven't experienced this personally. Although, I do kind of understand it.

Some of those who went through proper competitive art schools probably have experienced this. I don't think this reflects the industry or artists in general, I just think that there is bound to be bullies in any competitive field. Art is a very broad subject as well, and a lot of things can be viewed as OBJECTIVELY better, according to some artists. This belief, causes further hate, or isolation amongst artists.

Art is supposed to be a very peaceful field, and many of us live purely in the abstract way of life. Staying away from real matters or conflicts. But, it seems that along the immense amount of new artists, there is bound to also be a lot of hatred poured into the community. It might also be connected to the unique world culture in the last 20 yrs, introducing a very different breed of artists.

Anyway. I'd also like to hear more about toxicity in the art community.

May '17

@achronic Thank you very much for your time and your opinion , about this I have to say that I agree, i spent a lot of time in my life in a sports school and the competition was so extreme that some kids would bully others so they'd leve and have less people to compete with or eliminate future "threats" to their success, this is a very extreme case that is not what happens within the art community but maybe, the reasons at the roots of certain behavior may be the same. I also speeded years in a Liceo Artistico in Italy but there it was different, there was competition,yes, but it was different the kind of competition there was used to be more like ... me and my friends having a project and competing to do our best like this helping each other to grow and improve , or I don't know, I used to reunite with some friends that were in the last year and paint with them trying to "superate" myself , art is a very subjective matter but technic wise can be considered objective and kind of clear, superiority should be a consequence, not a goal .

kigernekoModerator
May '17

Never experienced the toxic behaviour you've mentioned in students at an art school. I've heard something about the rival school in the next province being extremely competitive but never heard about specific behaviours other than that. We did have a teacher who was toxic to everyone and a bully herself.
Haven't seen real bullying in art school after that teacher was gone. Maybe it all depends on mentality and the lack of free time of the students. If you're working on projects for school all day you don't have/want time to spend on wasting time like bullying. You just find people you want to work with to speed up your work the best way you can.
And I'm not sure if most artists are confident enough to attract so much attention to themselves.
My theory :smirk:

8 days later

May '17

I've never experienced something like this in a hard way. I think art community (cg in general that is what I'm more close to) is one of the best communities I've ever seen.
For example at school we are five groups, and every group need to make a game. Sometimes you can notice people being competitive (I'm one of them) but is more something like "oh, see what they did, looks awesome, let's make us something more awesome" xD.
And always try to help every one and ask how they do the things (unless the person itself is unfriendly to me so then I just think .. f** you -.-.

What I've noticed is that a lot of people nowadays says that what you're doing is good or bad without a constructive feedback, just to say it, but in my opinion this is the worst thing you can say to someone that is trying hard and that spent a lot of time in a project, I mean if you're my brother, that is 15 years old and doesn't care about anything or someone that "doesn't know anything about art" or doesn´t care it's ok, but I've noticed this behaviour with some students and what is worst, with a lot of teachers...
This is something that stucks the artist itself and doesn't help at all. I'm not saying that a: "hey, that's cool" isn't welcome but uhmmm... I think you can understand me.

But really, I think art community as I've seen it's awesome. You can always meet an asshole but this happens everywhere, just don't care about them and keep in touch and be nice with people that deserve it! :smile:

10 months later

Apr '18

Ive defiantly seen this on sites like deviantart or facebook groups however i never was annoyed by i use instagram to post my art and have built up a fanbase !! Thats basically what i recommend to all artists worry about building a fanbase who cares about self proclaimed art gods who think they're gate keepers !! did Lil Pump worry about what method man thought of him nah he just catered to his audience and keep putting stuff out ! I personally only do art for myself and make money from affiliate marketing which was the best decision in my life to keep art and money separate so i can actually enjoy art for what it is the fun of creating !!

11 days later

Apr '18

"Hate and toxic behavior within the art community"
Me : ._.) :expressionless: .-.) where ?

9 days later

Apr '18

I guess this depends on country as well. I'm from Malaysia and it's quite common here but most lecturer or students don't see themselves or notice that they are bullying others fellow artist or student. This happen to me before due to having dyslexic which is not recognize in Malaysia.
Malaysia is a multi culture country, so sometimes the teacher will either use chinese, cantonese or english to teach students. In class I have this situation where sometimes I do not understand the lesson hence asking a lot of questions which irritated some of the lecturers .
From my school, so far the issue is that, if you don't communicate much or the teacher just judge a person on how they look, they just give minimal help in art lessons.
For other art school (from what I heard from my other friends), is that the teacher judge them on how they draw. like if you draw like a bit cartoony, they will just classify that you won't have a future or learn well in art.

This is what I have experience so far. Right now, I am taking the Art school from Cubebrush and it really helps me a lot compare from a 2 years of hell in my previous school :smile: but different people different perspective.

Though I do hope that lecturers aren't judgy about their students cause this will effect how the classmates will see the student as well.