October is here. It’s still summer ish but it’s all flux now.
My move is done, a shortfilm was made, I had a period of rest. I broke 10k on tiktok, had a lil viral moment. Updated the website a bit, read a little bit. I also bought a blender and made some juice which was fire. I’m back at the Sylvia Plath fig tree dilemma again, but meh. Now I just have to make art again.
My current issue is what medium I should make with. I was hoping to have a popup show this fall, but alas I rly don’t think that that’s gonna happen (still praying🙌🏼). I’ve been posting daily still, which won’t stop. But now I’m stuck between stopmotions and physical works, namely drawings and sculptures. I’m happy with the visual styles of both, and I think they’re both relavent to my current art practice.
I can stick with stopmotions - the dailies, animations, and short films. All of these can lead to commissions, which can b appreciated but the flux of life is a bit weird rn, so I don’t wanna look for anything, but I’ll gladly take any commissions as they come. I can send out my short films to film festivals. I have three now and the topics r kinda wide. This would get me good visibility and cash prizes in some cases. I can make my animations. It’s how I can solidify myself as an artist as well as a filmmaker, and I usually sell those as nfts or commissions. The nft market is in shambles and I’m not great at connecting w that community so it’s a bit tough, but it’s where I’ve spent most of my time. It feels like a sunk cost, but it’s also where I have a lot of community through running my fundraisers (there’s another in the works!). Finally, I made now 6$ off the TikTok creator program. Not a move currently, but I’ll use those $6 well. I spent the past month making videos loop for a minute as only a video over 1 min get monetized but I think I’m gonna go back to how it was before and try and grow vs monetize :/
I can draw. I picked up a new set of pencils and started doing that more. It’s easily monetizable and I rly do like the shipping/sale experience, but drawing can get stale for me. I’ve been drawing since I was like 4 so it very much is home for me. Ik im good at it and there’s def room for growth, but it can be boring. It does feel like home though. I love exploring animation and digital media, but theres some thing about working with paper that has been so comforting. The texture is always soothing, and the idea of a shadow is always lovely to me. Its peaceful to see how objects can change with an added light or shadow, and its beyond automatic for me to create these.
Or finally, I can work on my sculptures. It was my main medium that lead into my animations, and it still is a very fun process for me. It allows me to experiment with colors and visuals in a different way compared to the other mediums. The bounds of my drawings are the edge of my paper, and the bounds of my animations are the amounts of material I have and the lens of my phone. The bounds of sculptures are gravity, space, and installation. These arent things I usually worry about - my stopmotions are small and undetailed to the point of not needing to worry about gravity and time, space is fine as everything is altered digitally, and the installation is just whatever can fit on a screen - and its very similar to my drawings. There’s also storage, but it usually is worth it. I miss sculpting too..
In all honesty, I started writing this email at the beginning of september, and I’ve been able to decide towards making a series of drawing and stopmotions, and finishing out the year with commissions and a short film. I’ll have to rebuild a website but its something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now. I’ve been able to organize/complete another Art for Humanity fundraiser as well, raising over 23K in total for Save the Children’s Gaza efforts (the split between the artists and profits are still being sorted but it was still incredibly successful). I’m in a little exhausted moment, but work freed up enough for me to finish this email. I’m figuring out some next steps again, but the rest of my year is set. but ofc, you make a plan and god laughs.
Cheers yall,
Faraz
ps. …i dont really know if i have any p to s honestly. i’ll hopefully launch a website with a store soon, but not rly in a rush. ill have some works below
psp. i tried monetizing on tiktok and I got too attached to the numbers so I stopped trying to get paid content out. so commissions open !!!
psps. ok also check out the fundraiser its rly beautiful https://objkt.com/collections/exhibitions/projects/art-for-humanity-palestine-31559265
