Such a cute little (new!) talk, although I felt incredibly called out by it (and you know what? that's okay).
I think the main takeaways are:
1. Creativity is becoming a means to an end: getting attention.
God, I wish it were that simple for me...then when I got burnt out from the pressures of attention-seeking, I could just...stop. Unfortunately, I have this drive to create all the time, and my problem is instead the shame of NOT getting attention despite having the ability to do so much. I mean, some people can barely bring themselves to write 1 story; I can write 20 simultaneously and I STILL can't get anything out of it? I mean, what a loser! <---Thus goes my internal dialogue...
2. Obsessing over how much attention you're going to get out of a creative endeavor takes you out of the moment.
^Very true. Which is why I prefer to save my obsession (and consequent depression) for AFTER I've had a good time getting lost in my art. Might as well have hills and valleys.
3. No amount of attention will ever be 'enough': If your creativity is driven by a desire to get attention, you are never going to be creatively fulfilled.
My deepest fear...although, after having finished 2 projects, one of which got zilch and the other getting more attention than I've probably ever received for anything in my life...I have to say that there is a difference.
The sense of accomplishment/pride IS about the same...I have too much ego to think Project Zilch was inferior simply because no one cared about it. But the obsession/depression that comes immediately afterward; that valley: it's not as low for the latter project. I can think critically about it without feeling an urge to sweep it out of my brain before I get gloomy. Instead of 'I did good...but--" I can think "I did good...yeah, I did good~."
I don't feel myself craving more...at least not yet. Right now I just feel satisfied, and it's a really NICE change of pace~.
4. See other artists as collaborators, not competition.
This point depresses me the most in the context of this forum, where people will tell you to your face that no comic artist would even want to help you out with your project unless you offered money, because they're all too busy with their own things.
The saddest part is that I don't even think that's true. It's just seen as correct. The correct way to react to someone asking for your creative attention is not to gauge your own interest in what they're requesting, but to assume that if you're working on something, anything at all, you're automatically too busy to even consider it.
Busy doing what?? If you're a professional with contracts to honor and bills to pay, sure, that's an excuse, but the vast majority of us are not. I have a lot of pride in my work, but even I don't think it's so essential to the art zeitgeist that I couldn't take some time away from it if something more fun came along. But I digress...
Back when I was a kid, I used to do collabs all the time, and I can attest to their 'magical' quality. There's just something amazing about seeing a finished work that you and another artist created together. It's better than getting a like or a view, because it's literal proof that you've made something bigger than yourself, that another human being took a genuine interest in. Enough interest to help bring it to life.
I don't do much collaboration anymore for a variety of reasons...but a lack of desire isn't one of them. Recently, someone simply colored in a line-art prize I drew for them, and it gave me that same magic feeling (although it helps that they did a bang-up job of coloring it~). I kinda wish I had more moments like that in my artistic life; that's something worth craving.