Too many of us...

Are there MILLIONS of artworks on Deviantart.com? I sometimes find myself getting depressed about the meaning of making an artwork in a world where we are overrun with countless images... almost all of them just trying to sell us something... In such a world, it becomes literally impossible for any artist to make any kind of image that could have any kind of impact on society at all... or even be noticed.

When I look through DA, perusing the millions of heartfelt artworks of so many, many artists, I think each one deserves to be looked at and contemplated... Yes, there is a lot of "bad" work here... but even that work deserves to be looked at and taken in. There is merit in even the worst artwork. But there is not time. There is so much more art than there is time to look at art.

So I rush by, clicking and clicking, stopping only when something really catches my eye... having to ignore so many others. And I only peruse artworks because I am an artist myself. People who aren't artists would never come to DA... much less go to a gallery and really look. The TV shows and commercials give them plenty of imagery, and they can't be convinced that art would do them any good at all. There was a time when art was an important part of society. Now it seems like its nothing more than an empty caricature of what it used to be.

Art has been paralyzed by commercialism... What can we possibly do about that?