What's your opinion on keeping your personal opinions and artwork separate?

[Mocha]

I get the feeling some people might not completely understand what I'm getting at just from the title, so please read the whole post. Thank you.
(Also this topic is slightly controversial but I am in no way meaning to stir up any drama, I'm just curious about other's opinions on the topic.)

So I'm gonna have to do a bit of story telling first here before I can get to my point, so buckle in!

Alright, so about five years ago I started following an artist to keep up with their webcomics and just their art in general since I really loved their art style and looked up to this artist a lot since they also seemed like a pretty nice person. Originally they had kept their blog as being strictly for anything relating to their webcomics (including fanart/fanfictions etc.) and their artwork, and occasionally would post funny stories about things that happened to them. All of this seemed to change about a year and a half ago, when I noticed that they had started posting social activist-type stuff on their blog, which was fine, but it had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the comics or art. Then about a less than a year ago they began posting things that were becoming very controversial and made me really uncomfortable to read. Most of it had messages about how "all white people are racist" and "white people are privileged, they can't be poor!" and this little gem right here: "cis people are disgusting and should die!". Needless to say I distanced myself quite a bit from this person's work after stuff like this became the norm for them. A couple of times people tried to politely let the artist know that things they posted were offensive (they didn't even ask them to take it down or anything) and the artist dropped the nice act and lashed out at them with rude comments in return.

I personally believe that art is a great way to express yourself and your opinions, however I personally think that their are some unspoken boundaries of what is acceptable (hate speech for example is disgusting). I personally would NEVER post things about my personal/political opinions on to my art page, not only because people expect me to post art, but because it could be extremely alienating to followers, and I definetly dont want to force my opinion on to someone else, especially people who are still very young and haven't formed their own opinions yet. I guess it could be comparable to how you don't talk politics with your coworkers or complete strangers, things just get uncomfortable way too fast and someone is going to end up looking like an asshole.

So that's the end of my long rant, what are your opinions on this kind of stuff?

[Testaccount]

I don't discuss any of that stuff, period. In this day and age, it's almost scary to share opinions about political things.

However, like you, I've seen artists and writers share all kinds of hate speeches, especially about cis and heterosexual people. In the end, as artists and writers, we need to remember our following is their for our work, not our political thoughts.

[ratique]

There are many factors that play into your story. How old is the artist you are following? Do they have a professional background (do they work in the industry, are they paid by a company or freelance)?

Right now it just sounds like a random person on the internet, who also happens to draw. There is nothing professional about posting hate speech and a professional will avoid posts like that.

If they are a young person in a difficult time of their life without guidance and without being employed by a company that might tell them to cut down on the posts, they are not a professional - even if their art might be good enough to make you feel otherwise.

[LordVincent]

I used to talk a lot about my personal life and opinions in my author's notes on tapas, and my readers actually mostly loved it. For some people it became a main source of attraction because they got involved in my life and learned a lot about the options for transition, and the struggles trans people may meet. It became a nice little community where we shared advice on binders and the like.

However being open about yourself has its downsides. I'm still pretty open about what I am and what I think but I talk much less about my private life in official spaces and I've had to learn to better handle criticism. I find a lot of my past behavior pretty embarrassing and in some cases straight up offensive. It's shit that I would never do today.

Another thing that has changed is audience size. When I was a little dude with a few hundred followers, talking about my personal life in authors notes was more like talking to a circle of friends to me. Since I have a lot more than that these days, my words have a lot more impact and I need to keep the young readers in mind when I say something so that I don't promote bad behavior.

I don't think that's bad at all tho. It has changed me as a person in a positive way and if anything I think it would be good if everyone was given moral incentive to think about their own words from an objective perspective before they post anything.

TL;DR: I am still clear about my political opinions and even include them in my art since they're kind of the fuel for the art itself, but I keep a lot of personal life related stuff in private convos now rather than official spaces, and I am more careful with how I respond to people.

[Rhombik]

I think it depends on what you are trying to achieve with your comics. If you were planning to discuss issues from day one then it will be in there anyway. If you were planning to do a cute series about a vampire unicorn then it might not come up.

Personally, I think if the issues are not already in the work, then there's no need to bring them up. This is especially the case if readers are using the comic for escapism. They want to think about the vampire unicorn, not real life problems. It might be jarring and put them off re-visiting the comic.

There's never, IMO, any need for hate speech or ragging on a particular group.

[Ironscarf]

Barking opinions at people never changed anyone's mind, all it can do is cut down your audience to those who already agree with you. The things we believe in are going to come out in our work one way or another anyway and that's a far better way to engage with others than trying to tell them what to think. It's all just wasted words blown out into the ether.

[spadesart]

i was really active in social justice discourse a while back because my family doesnt offer me a space to discuss my opinions at all (im not even allowed to think anything thats not right wing in their presence) and having a platform of likeminded people to vent or talk to felt so different so i kind of understand their whole shtick if they were like 17 years old or below.

nowadays though ive mellowed out and while i still have the same stance on social issues i try to put it into my work positively like having lgbt characters in my stories. because i do think you can integrate your beliefs into your work and not have it halt the story or be preachy.

[Aspie_Gamer]

In my opinion, you certainly should stand up to idiotic bullshit you see on social media like when an artist who here recently drew gender swapped fan art for the "Dream Daddy" visual novel game got shat for being "transphobic" (sadly you can't make this stuff up) and was unfortunately harassed endlessly by idiots who can't separate fiction from reality. Some of whom even justified sending her death threats because she was being "transphobic"

I'm also a firm believer of not blindly worshipping your idols or childhood heroes since they are people just like you, but more often than not, say or do really dumb things that make you face palm hard. Case in point, I loved Harry Potter as a kid and I would still marathon watch the franchise if ABC Family (or Freeform I should say) had another Potter marathon, but because of social media and the growing backlash against political correctness, I have since discovered that J.K Rowling as a person isn't quite the nice person I always envisioned her to be like most anybody with a "verified" tag on their Twitter account these days. Recently, she tweeted what was basically an attack against Donald Trump regarding a photo of him that had been posted (forgot the context of said photo), and like most liberals and far left leaning folk, she didn't even get the facts straight on what actually transpired between Trump and the people in said photo before she mercilessly ragged on him for basically no reason.

As for the whole artwork thing, My thoughts and views as an autistic person naturally show in Susan Graham from my comic Life of an Aspie, but of course, I know that autism isn't something that can't be pigeonholed or stereotyped (and I even let new readers know that at the start of my comic) because of how different two autistic people can be. One might like being touched. Another not so much for example. Other than that, I do have content that some people (and they know who they are) will no doubt find "problematic" such as Eiji being a douche to Susan, but obviously irl, I don't act like that towards mentally disabled people.

[Michelle]

I keep my online presence mostly about my art and sometimes dumb funny stuff, but I will offer my opinion on serious matters from time to time.
I used to think that you should keep a sterile, strictly-art presence to not upset anyone-- but to be honest, if someone disagrees with me on ideas like, say... every human deserves basic rights, regardless of gender/sexuality/race, then I don't want to work with them/have them follow me anyway.

People are free to run their accounts as they like, but I'm personally more drawn to creators who take a stance on real-world issues rather than completely ignore them. But when it devolves into tumblr-esque "All cis people should die" sort of extremism, I'm 1000% out of there.

[stevendeluxi]

Personally I draw a clear line between my art and my opinions. Simply because my opinions would be out of place for my comics, which I draw from escape from reality for a while and this is also what I want to offer. Although my characters deal with issues from time to time, I can't let them talk about what bothers me personally.
However, if I ever want to state an opinion in my comics, I'd hide them behind a metaphor that works best with my comic, joined with an opposiing view, so it's not randomly thrown in. But I really prefer dealing with things as neutral as possible in my comics, since the last thing I want to do is upsetting someone. That's totally not my goal here.

If another artist wants to state their opinion, it's really depending on the art they're creating. Like, if you're creating a comic focusing on political issues, your opinion would fit in there. But if it ends up being straight-up hate speech, no matter if it comes from the right or left wing, I'll back the f up, leave, and pretend I've never met the artist. I have no tolerance for that.

[emmyengberts]

I don't. But I write things that can be seen as controversial anyway... Writing about two girls falling in love and their love story ending happily. Writing about ADHD and autism in a positive light. Writing about people who aren't perfect but also are simply human.
Because I'm human. I'm a pansexual, I'm not cis, I have ADHD (inattentive type) and I also have autism, I suffer from severe depression on a regular base. This is my world and I refuse to give any of that up, to hide any of those elements. They make me who I am, they the scope through which I experience the world and the world experiences me.

Yeah, I speak up. When I see people hate on other people, I can't not speak up.
I also write stories about people finding love with other people and not being hated for it, making them actually find the happiness that the real world may not actually give people like them. I will fight for happiness!

[R.n.P]

To me I hate putting my personal opinion directly into my comic, the best I could do is elude to my personal opinions in such a thick layer that any normal person reading a comic wouldn't notice so I wont have to deal with people that haven't heard that not all people share their own opinions
plus that hate speech stuff in my opinion is bullshit, to me words are words, its not like a word grows a knife n stabs me in the gut, unless someone is actually saying that people should harm me that I would raise my eyebrows to a word that some random individual says

[joannekwan]

My political opinions stay far away from my comics. And I rarely ever discuss politics in general on my art tumblr.
But yeah, if I was following an artist and they spouted stuff like that I would definitely unfollow no matter how good their art was. Because every time I'd see an art piece from them, I cannot unsee all the shit they've posted and I'll forever connect them with hate.
It's like dude, if you're spreading generalized hate like that (in the example of the original post), you're just as bad as alt-rights.

I'll just say it here, as a very left-leaning moderate woc who's very sympathetic to LGBT+ and other minority issues, I don't mind if you're Republican and/or voted for Trump (I may be a bit disappointed though, haha) but as long as you aren't actively racist/prejudice/minority-phobic and attack people, and don't spam me or others with your political views, you're okay. Like I don't like the man, but I don't think all Trump supporters are bad people.

[punkarsenic]

I personally believe that art is a great way to express yourself and your opinions, however I personally think that their are some unspoken boundaries of what is acceptable (hate speech for example is disgusting).

basically this.

i think every artist has a right to get as political and as personal as they want in their art, but theres a way to conduct yourself and some stuff maybe should be kept to yourself (esp in the personal.) not just for your like reputation, but to protect yourself and keep your following healthy and safe as much as possible. you want to be approachable, especially about your opinions - that doesnt mean you cant stand your ground, but you need to know how to keep your cool when things get really personal. which is a really hard one. i think there are times to get angry, and visibly so, but theyre few and far between.

so like, yes, talk about your experiences and opinions as much as you want through your art! but keep it respectful and safe.

on the flipside, i think people have more space to get really angry and say slightly outrageous things when just venting in personal spaces (like a personal blog for instance) but thats a lil different.

[modrawmanga]

Like @ratique has said, it really depends on many factor like age and life experience.
The 'greener' the artist, usually they're more blatant about their personal opinions, because most likely they have not gone thru enough life experiences to know what negative effects of this kind behavior would lead to.

I would suggest to keep artwork and personal completely separate, especially if you're still trying to build an audience,
It also depends on what r u trying to do with your artwork as well
If the artwork meant to convert people to certain opinion then you can't separate the two

[indagold]

I rarely post my political opinions and rarely it's only outside of forums or chat servers or with friends. I like to keep them out of my main accounts and especially my work itself. Last thing is making my work a mouthpiece, especially a fantasy comic that takes place in a whole other world would be a little hilarious to say the least. All work does reflect some of your viewpoints in the end, it's just you choice whether you want to be modest your work.

As for other artists I lost touch with basically every friend who left deviantart and moved to tumblr because that's all they ever posted was the whole "die cis scum" "ew white people" "ew straight people" crap. It gets even worse when it leaks into your stories because you might not even know who these people are and you lose immersion once you realize it's not a story anymore, just a political rant. You admire their art but in the end you don't want to listen to that.

[Strontium]

I'm very careful expressing ideological opinions and sensitive details about myself online. I don't want to alienate any readers, and neither do I want to give potential bullies ammunition to hurt me. I was bullied a lot growing up.

However I don't mind talking about my life online, on places like Twitter and Tumblr. I might talk about classes or trips or other interesting occurrences, like getting a cool package in the mail. It's nice to share good times with your friends online, and it's also nice to know I have some internet friends who would lend me their ear in a time when I'm in need.

Mostly I just post my art and webcomic, and talk about books and tv shows I'm enjoying.

[gateofselidor]

I try to avoid sharing any political views on pages that represent me, like my comic or social media pages. I'm not completely apolitical, but I don't get drawn into drama or post anything too controversial. I share my comic with people I work with (I work in a creative field, so people are actively interested in what I do), and it could jeopardise my career and professional relationships if I waded into online drama where everyone can see it.

Before I first started sharing my comic with people at work, I also went through my social media and removed personal posts that were a little too personal, or that would reveal private information I wasn't prepared to share with colleagues (like the fact that I'm trans). I now limit personal posts and author comments to more general things, like being busy at work, or trips I've been on.

Sometimes I miss being able to share my often strong opinions on political matters, but it's not worth damaging my image for.

[insomniascrawl]

Yiiiikes, I think there's definitely a way to express your opinions and ideas in a way that's tasteful, and not so specific that it offends anyone through art, because let's face it, a big part of art is to challenge people's thinking. I think it's fine to share your opinions or put light on injustice in the world that people try and push in the shadows, but when people start to act like 'agree with me or you're trash' that's a problem, that's where I depart from that ride, you know?

[lunaartemisasama]

I think it really depends of the type of artists. For example there are artists that their art revolve around their political ideas or points of view, a good example is Bansky. But he doesn't have an official acount so lol.

I also love Calle13's songs and they have some political songs, and you can see that they are pretty close to the left, but still I like them because they share their thoughts.

Others are just not interested in that stuff and I respect that.

But I also understand that there are some boundaries that people might not cross for example hate speech is just bad. But some people do it. On the other hand some others just love to argue.

I follow some comics artist and I think they things they care about the most, are lgbt rights and equality, against sexism in general. I think #MakeMineMilkshake is a good example.

So that's it, for me all is good as long as you don't promote hate...or something illegal.