The Future for JK Creative...

Howdy friends.

After 20+ years of managing the creative hustle, having to build and maintain an online and social media presence, and having to cater to the unrealistic demands of society, I'm toast.

Don't get me wrong, I love making art and processing the world through my creativity. Art isn't something someone merely does. If you are an artist, that's who you are. But frankly, I've grown exponentially tired of the hustle culture the world has so greedily built; designed to consume, chew, and spit out anything creative and worth-while as a by-product of mediocrity. And the rise of AI just makes things worse (but that's a rant for another time). Where does this leave JK Creative? By summer 2027, the plan is to no longer maintain this website, for starters. Since I've already paid for web hosting through July 2027, I might as well get my money's worth, right? That being said, I'm really not sure how much updating I'll do to the portfolio, the news section, or the web store in that time, but there is a finite window in place. Second, I'm not really sure how much updating I'll do through Instagram (the only social media platform I've managed to keep around these last few years.) I no longer have a fear of missing out on the digital world. I've spent more time this year reading actual books (before the AI overloads destroy them all) and watching/listening to physical media. There are so many great stories, songs, and artists to discover within physical media that never translated over into the digital world. It's not that these things are terrible, it's just that someone couldn't figure out how to market them to make a shit-ton of money. (And that's another beef I have with the world right now...not everything is about fucking money!!! Enough with the fucking greed.)

The irony here is that it has taken me a long time to get over my creative burnout. I'd say the last 10 years have been incredibly difficult for me, creatively speaking, and I'm just now getting around to feeling the creative spark again. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'd like to share the new work I've been making, but I continually feel burned out by the demands of having to share this work and myself online. I don't care to contribute much more to the online world that the AI bots will steal, anyway. If I can step away by no longer being a participant, why the fuck not?

I miss interacting with people during art show openings, discussing current event, philosophy, and why I do what I do. I feel like more and more of the world, especially when it comes to the internet, is designed to keep all of us isolated, depressed, and ready to give up. This world is fucking depressed, people. It's my mission to regain some joy that the internet and social media has stolen from me. I can't get back the time, but I can decide to no longer share my time with something that has little to no importance in my life, anymore.

I think the most radical thing I could do as an artist, moving forward, is to create a physical 'brick-n-mortar' space with no advertising, no social media; exist solely by word-of-mouth. This may seem like a pipe dream, or a really stupid idea, depending who you ask, but I know of many successful artists and businesses who have operated this way for years. I think it's worth a shot. I don't know when that will happen, but it's a plan I'm currently working on. My goals as an artist and as a person have changed drastically over the years, and the demands of society's definition of success no longer align with those goals. I think I'll see an amazing shift in my attitudes toward many things while removing myself from the trappings of online life. It won't be an easy task, at first, but it'll be a necessary one. It may do you, dear reader, some good to do the same. You'll know it when the time comes.

Until next time, -JK