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Stranded Updates 0065 — Description
People like you.

There is this bubble in the corporate world where they are unable to create the magic, but they can sure as hell monetize it. Add to that the millions of wannabes, Netflix money miners, social activists, movie-money hangers-on, and you get this giant mob of cash-hungry opportunists in the creative space these days. Like any gold rush, it will end when the streaming and movie money goes away and everyone will end up angry and blaming each other. And we will deal with endless social media wars pulling the public and fans in blaming each other for the mess. I do not look forward to that and in some ways it is already here.

I had an art-teacher once. She took a job for a company that made classic ship etchings in glass, and she said her artist friends all derided her for making that choice. You sold out. Those works of art are somehow less because you are doing them for someone else, for money and cash, the message you are trying to express through art is now somehow tainted in those works. They aren't yours. Those are commercial art.

I feel the biggest mistake of our time is creatives believing the smiling faces handing the cash over. That isn't your work. You don't own it. The company will not take care of you when you can't perform anymore or you aren't hot. They will take your rights. Those characters aren't yours. They will hand what you love over to a soulless creative team you don't know and are forbidden to speak to. They will make you an honorary whatever and smile when they say your name but that is it. No checks. No legacy. Nothing when you walk away.

Now where is the next person like you?