For the last four years (give or take some off-planet experiences) I've run The Primitive Entertainment Workshop, and I've posted (on average) 3 or 4 posts per day since early 2013. (Sometimes I skip a day or two, sometimes I go crazy and post 20 or 30 things in one day...) The P.E.W. includes drawings, sketches, abstract art, cartoons, digitally manipulated photos, flash fiction, gloomy-slow fiction, poetry, political commentaries, diary entries, quips, non-jokes, art theory, fake news, book reviews, travel posts, guest contributions, rants, homemade religions, satire, serialized stories, mini-dramas, manifestos, postal art, zines, requests for money, LOTS of nonsense, and even some opportunities to purchase SWAG… We’ve produced four books, created stickers and t-shirts based on artwork first published here, and linked to several sites (Zizzle / Redboodle / D.V. Ant Art / Faceboot…) where humans can buy junk with Primitive Artwork plastered all over it---and I’ve produced the majority of this STUFF myself (although I certainly do have a cadre of interesting contributors, to whom I am ETERNALLY grateful.*) [*”eternally” is not a legally binding phrase…] AND, we are fast approaching the 5,000th post.
Sheeeeeit…
That’s a lot of nonsense…
Anyway, I’ve begun to wonder: What Kind of ART GUY am I??? (I made a short video asking that very question…)
Does it matter? Is it important to specialize? Should I be CONCERNED that I don’t have an official title or definition?
I mean, I’ve been drawing and writing and making up stupid songs and poems since I was old enough to hold a crayon… I will undoubtedly keep doing those things until I die (and perhaps for a few more years after that---I haven’t decided for sure.) It’s a compulsion, a NEED. I’m happiest when I’m writing or drawings or painting or eating sugar or making up nonsense songs... I LOVE the nonsense, because I think it BEST relays how I feel about the world. You can laugh or you can cry---or you can draw a snake with a halo above his head and say that he’s worried that his accountant might be an alien…who isn’t very good at doing taxes… I, of course, go with the third option.
Definitions are nice though, especially when people ask you questions like, “So what do you do?” I usually say, “I’m a writer!” or “I’m an artist!” depending on how I feel and whether or not I like the person I’m talking to. (Sometimes I lie, and say things like, “I’m a hypnotist!” or “I can’t tell you---it’s classified…” For about three years, I had my wife convinced that I was a Cult Leader---that’s how I won her heart. From there, it’s just been the hypnosis and help from my government contacts that have KEPT her with me, at least since my cult all committed suicide… But I’ve digressed.)
So I’m thinking about making the leap to Patreon. It doesn’t hurt anything to try it (economically speaking), and I have this idea about running it like a Secret Society or an old-fashioned fan club, with Certificates of Membership, and I.D. cards, and a regular (actually mailed to you) newsletter, and fancy “members only” t-shirts, and secret handshakes, and funny little cars that we drive in parades, and covert meetings where we discuss our plans to take over the world (for the “higher paying” patrons, of course…) Maybe something like the Church of the Subgenius meets the Mickey Mouse Club. That sounds like fun, doesn’t it??? The real point of the Patreon element would be to help pay for online expenses (I’m a little more than 75 percent of the way through my WeirdPress free media allotment, which means we aren’t too far from either having to pay for more space or start dropping old stuff off the site---the latter being a REPELENT concept, in my opinion.) Plus, we could do stuff like print more books and artwork and make new t-shirts and stickers, and I’ve always harbored the desire to have a big ART SHOW, like rent the expo-center here in town and have a bunch of framed artwork and tables where contributors were signing books and giving talks, maybe even have a bunch of KIDS draw stuff and bring it in, and then have a panel of judges award prizes to kids in various age groups---you know, to help encourage the YOUTH to stay creative and make things themselves… I’ve got some ideas...
Anyway, what do you people think? Is it worth going the Patreon route? Do you peeps like the idea of becoming OFFICIAL MEMBERS OF THE PRIMITIVE PANORAMA and getting a bunch of fun stuff mailed directly to your door? Seems like good times to me.
---Richard F. Yates, Hypnotist in Chief of the P.E.W.
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