I wonder what percentage of art is eventually shared publicly on the internet

on one hand I could believe that most of it is. simply because whatever mysterious force compels folks to make art also compels them to share it with as many others as they can

but on the other hand, sharing vulnerable and authentic art (which is the art that I think most artists are most driven to create) is incredibly difficult. in my experience it’s actually more difficult than opening up to someone about your childhood. and sharing art of any kind leaves you extremely vulnerable to attack - which a lot of folks on the internet love to do in response to authenticity or vulnerability. and honestly if one is driven to share their art with others, why not share it with only those closest to them? that would be much safer and more comfortable

so I feel like the answer to the question of “how much art is ever shared publicly?” could be anywhere from “almost all of it” to “a very small percentage”. and I don’t think that either option is necessarily better or worse than the other

@kasdeya I'd think very few of all the art made gets shared publicly (publicly being to a wide audience without restrictions).
I know I'm highschool I had those sketches and drawings. Many of them. I haven't shared much if any of them to a wider forum

@kasdeya and that's been pretty much the same for any classmates who drew a lot in highschool

imagine if we had a culture where art wasn’t something that was mass-distributed to the entire world over the internet - but was something that we made and shared with only those we felt safest with, like a home-cooked meal. I’m not sure if that would necessarily be worse than what we have now

@shijikori that is a really good point. even for the artists who do end up sharing their art publicly later in life, I’m sure they started by doing so much sketching and doodling. and they probably do a bunch of that in between the things that they post publicly as well

@kasdeya I love your homecooked meal analogy, that feels very close to my heart and I may copy that to explain art should not be a competition

@tropicaltrevor I’m glad that you like it so much! to be honest I think of cooking as a form of art, but it’s a very interesting art form because it’s ephemeral, we need it to live, and it’s scarce. it’s one of the only remaining art forms that can’t be infinitely reproduced and shared