I made art every day for a year
January 21, 2025
By Afzal
I made art every day for a year, what changed?
Back to writing after months—this is the mandatory birthday post I’ve been writing every year since last year. It doesn’t matter if I haven’t written anything else for the entire year; I feel it’s necessary to write on this day—not for the audience (which is almost nonexistent at this point) but for myself, to reevaluate and reflect on my creative journey.
I’m officially 23 years old now, carrying the burden and guilt of not “making it.” Yes, I still haven’t “made it.” I still have to work for someone else to earn a living. Last year, I wrote that I would start making art every day to ensure I was doing at least a little something for my creative growth. But, honestly, nothing much has changed. My audience is still the same size, and anything I publish or release goes unnoticed. I’m not blaming anyone but myself.
I didn’t publish any of my big ideas last year because of procrastination. I did manage to make art every day, but looking back, I think it was more about maintaining the streak than truly creating art. There were days when I just posted old art with minor changes—like altering colors—or relied on AI to generate something for me.
Yes, you read that right—I used AI. I’ve been making generative art for a year, and since I’m not great at coding, AI became my CTO. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using AI as a tool—it’s the direction we’re headed, where judgment and taste are more important than technical execution. But I realize now that I often failed to provide even basic judgment or direction to my prompts. Instead, I would just type commands like “Make a P5 Art” or “Surprise me.” I believe that true art, even when aided by AI, should carry your judgement and taste. Without that, it lacks authenticity.
But was the past year entirely unproductive? Not at all. A lot happened emotionally. In my last birthday post, I talked about how I was depressed for half of 2023 due to the guilt of failure. Making art every day in 2024 gave me a sense of fulfillment, a feeling that I was at least trying. And honestly, that’s one of the best feelings—knowing you’re putting in the effort, even if progress is slow.
So, what’s next? Will I continue making art? Absolutely. But this time, it won’t just be Gen-Art e/very day—it will be e/very day. I want to ensure that whatever I create is in its purest form, not just lazy generative art produced without my authenticity. I’ll also focus more on finishing and publishing my project ideas. There is this new amazing platform Rodeo by Foundation on base L2 which lets you publish NFTs for free, I’m thinking of creating on-chain art every day there.
Thank you!
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