CinderBlockStudios

Mentioned this before but after dA's AI fiasco last year I've finally stripped down my gallery to the barest of bare bones that I could. This account is officially a legacy/portfolio account and that's where I'm leaving it. I legit can't be bothered to do more than sparsely interact with this community anymore. Considering I've been here for over a decade and have never gotten any major growth is reason enough to abandon this place. Hell I can get more likes via Instagram or TikTok (which I kinda hate) on works I've spent FAR less time on. Hell I have a discord community that's more active than my followers here.

That said previous links to my other stuff online are in past journals. I still sign in here regularly but mostly to check on my inspirations, and to occasionally browse the forum.

dA is already FAR past it's prime, and honestly the site for me is on life support. Unless you're already successful, or are peddling bullshit AI content then the algorithm here doesn't give two shits about you.

Once again for my followers PLEASE find me on other platforms, because this site is DEAD!!!

So a few months back I posted about possibly leaving dA. While my feelings have remained the same, I have decided to keep the account open for the time being. However I have cleared out about 50-60% of the old art that I had on here, and have curated what is left as more of a portfolio of sorts.

Going forward I won't really be posting here anymore though. You may see me lurking around on the forums from time to time, but that's about it. All my new art will be posted to my Facebook fan page and in my discord community (Links below). Maybe once or twice a quarter I'll upload a piece that is worthy of my limited gallery now, but who knows.

Thanks everyone for following my art and supporting me over the years! See the previous post for the complete list of my social accounts. I'm most active these days on Youtube, Instagram, and Twitch.

Keep on creating!

"Cinder Block Society" Discord: https://discord.gg/TYvn6eGZNr

Cinder Block Studios on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CinderBlockStudios

So I wanted to make a post before I did anything...drastic? For some time now I've been considering leaving DeviantArt.

While this site is great for collecting pieces that inspire me, I've found that over the years I've been using the platform less and less. This place as a whole is OVERSATURATED with amazing work and amateurs alike and short of a few people I've met on the forums it really don't foster the kind of community that I enjoy or am always trying to build.

Additionally I've found other platforms to be much better at bringing new eyes to my work. Most notably IG and stuff I'm doing IRL at the gallery. Even my youtube community has had steady growth over the years but this place is growing ever more outdated for me. Many if not all of the artists I follow here I'm also following on IG, so the posts are the same and honestly I'm seeing them there before here every time.

Not to mention the big issue now with people creating fake NFTs based on images on this site. It has gotten so bad that part of the CORE membership now includes protection against it, creating a bit of a nasty disincentive for free users.

As time goes on I think back to when I was younger and the idea of getting my art to a site like this was really rewarding and fun. Now as a professional though it's more of an archive of my work through time.

I think the biggest issue I have here is that the model just doesn't really work for promotion and sales of art. This is a community for artists of any level, but artists aren't usually buying art, they're selling it. REAL collectors aren't looking at sites like this for anything but collecting images. Have a look at anyone's favorite folder here (my own included)...have a look at your own. Do you really care about those pieces or is it just a matter of "eh I like this. Fav." and move on. There's stuff in my folders I haven't looked at in over a decade, and that's not only meaningless, but super disingenuous to how you feel about an artist's work.

So I'm still a bit undecided, but I'm leaning in the direction of deleting everything and closing the account sometime this year (summer maybe?)

Would like to hear everyones' thoughts though.

In the mean time here's my on all the socials:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinderblockstudios/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CinderBlockStudios/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cinderblockarts/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Cinderblockstudios TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cinderblockstudios

Official Site: http://www.cinderblockstudios.com/

Other Stuff:

Twitch: twitch.tv/castlesandcocktails

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/cinder-block-studios

Cocktail Blog: https://mediumofmixology.com/

There's also a community discord link for which can be found in any YT video I've uploaded in the past year or so.

So I have recently hit an interesting point in my life in which I can see through the marketing façade of mainstream gaming. Now to be fair, I never have been a fan of the “mainstream” games that rocket into popularity thanks to their realistic graphics and immersive “whatevers.” No, for me games have always been about the adventure, story, and experience of playing…which up until very recently I didn’t realize was unusual.

For a moment I want to take you back. Back to a time before internet culture, before online video was king, and before most home phones weren’t wireless (or just someone’s cell). The year was 1995 (or maybe ’94). I was but a small impressionable child, but I saw a video game for the first time; Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo. Little did I know that experience would shape my concept of gaming for the rest of my life. Form that day at a cousin’s house; I knew that I wanted to play. Not just because it was a flashy image on a TV, but because I was drawn into the adventure of exploring a world.

Fast forward a few years, and the experience between my brother and I became about diving into interesting places in each cartridge and seeing just what new world there was to explore. For the majority of my life gaming was just that, an adventure. A one way ticket out of chores and school assignments, and into pipes, caverns, and dungeons sprawling across dozens of new worlds!

The impact that those games had on me was profound, and in many ways not something I’d fully understand until years later. It took me until college to realize that the adventures I went on as a kid, fueled my desire to “escape” into my paintings, and subsequently create stories and worlds for others to explore. In that sense, gaming for me was always about the next great journey and which princess to save next.

In the past year though I found myself invited into the world of mainstream, multiplayer games…Many of these games I have grown to adore, while others have become a nuisance. There was a time where creating a game was a passion project for programmers, composers, and designers which manifested itself into a rich experience for the player. I think however over the past decade we may have lost that vision for what a game should be. While I by no means want to degrade the quality or skill that modern artists are utilizing to create unique characters and experiences, I have begun to question the validity of certain games as the betterment of the human experience. Recently I have chosen to quit playing a certain game, and as a result I have become more focused, productive, and motivated by doing so. Games that are designed to cause an addiction in the player to “play” rather than “experience” a game I think is causing a disconnect in the artistic experience among many young minds. If I (as a 30ish gamer and artist) can be so easily manipulated into playing for the sake of playing, then I think there is something to be said about the industry as a whole. These days artists are taking work to build a portfolio and put food on the table, but as I’m writing I have to wonder if the same artists are also “selling their souls” to the paycheck.

As an artist I’m concerned that the “art of the game” is being lost to the “art of a business.” More players, more games, more money…yeah a studio can do that, it’s their right as a business, but I GREATLY WORRY for artists that will design for a project for the money, without realizing that the product might be hurting it’s players rather than inspiring them. For me a game should inspire the player to go on an adventure, solve a problem, or just have fun, but with many mainstream games being produced I'm afraid people won't be inspired to create and just will spiral into "the game" which at the end of the day is meaningless.

So what does this have to do with painting parties? To put it simply when the visual arts are pushed into the DIY world, everyone suffers. If people reach a point where they decorate their homes with their own attempts at fine art, while at the same time moving forward with the mentality of “I can just make my own, I don’t need to buy something,” then the visual fine artist will go extinct. To limit the arts to simply something that can be done on a Friday evening for a couple hours, is to cause serious harm to the global art community and our culture as a whole. The dumbing down of painting in this case into the “party” mentality can potentially rob our society of the culture of great art; and in its place build an anarchy of DIY “arts and crafts.”

In recent years the art community has seen a rise in what you might call a “painting party.” For many small business groups, it’s the concept of a single night’s painting class in which a group of adults all paint a simple design while enjoying a bottle of wine or other beverage to relax. Thees BYOB nights have popped up all around the country and what started small has become a national phenomenon. However, with more and more people signing up for these events, I have to wonder about the long term implications of what might happen to artists and art as a whole.

What does excite me about the opportunity these events bring to communities is how it opens new doors for many people and teaches them that they can be creative even if they have never thought of themselves as such before. In opening up new people to the world of art, it has begun to build their confidence in understanding the visual arts as well as being able to relate to artists rather than admire or gawk at them from a distance. However this understanding I believe can come at a high cost if we’re not careful. With the confidence to just paint something for yourself, these avid creators may not find the need to support and collect works from working professionals and skilled hobbyists anymore.

Art should always feel accessible and “fun” for the creator, but this type of relaxing fun at these “painting parties,” cannot and should not take the place of fine art in our communities. In the mid 20th century there was a rise in the DIY culture for remodeling homes in suburban America. In most cases it became the norm to tackle large carpentry or interior designs to improve one’s home and lifestyle. These days hardware stores market themselves on this principle and it’s become integrated in our culture today. However out of the DIY movement came a slew of problems. Not all remodeling can be considered DIY, especially a number of electrical and plumbing projects, which have often plagued the average Do It Yourselfer and caused thousands of poorly designed and constructed homes across the country.

So what does this have to do with painting parties? To put it simply when the visual arts are pushed into the DIY world, everyone suffers. If people reach a point where they decorate their homes with their own attempts at fine art, while at the same time moving forward with the mentality of “I can just make my own, I don’t need to buy something,” then the visual fine artist will go extinct. To limit the arts to simply something that can be done on a friday evening for a couple hours, is to cause serious harm to the global art community and our culture as a whole. The dumbing down of painting in this case into the “party” mentality can potentially rob our society of the culture of great art; and in its place build an anarchy of DIY “arts and crafts.”

However, this isn’t to say these party events are all bad. As I began, creating a fresh and engaged group of creative adults is something our culture is in desperate need of. The more and more people become engaged in the act of creating (in whatever form it takes), the more we will see a surge in the education and respect for the fine arts which could grow exponentially. I don’t feel that we are in either side of these extremes as of yet, however the dark side of them could easily overtake the culture not check on every now and then. As these types of businesses and events continue to flourish, it’s everyone’s responsibility not to simply limit our view of the visual fine arts. While the painting process is fun and rewarding it’s more than just something that takes a few hours while sipping on a glass of Merlot in a building that was once a pizza shop. Instead these events should be using the creative outlet to build up our desire for the beauty and aesthetics of work created by professionals and skilled hobbyists working in the field today.