Art (/ärt/) noun: the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.
There is an app for everything these days: editing photos, coloring, writing, and now drawing. Yes, there’s an app for drawing—don’t ask its name, empower it somewhere else. The argument in favor of the digital drawing application says it’s accessible at all times with an unlimited toolkit; your rough draft can easily be edited in Photoshop without having to recreate the rough draft; and it introduces a new medium for producing art. Are all of these aspects awesome? Of course, but does the final product count as art? Does it make someone an artist? The answer is a blaring no. Let’s talk about it.
The app takes drawing—a sometimes lengthy, difficult process—and makes it easier. Making life easier is the point of technology, right? That’s nice, but why does art making need to be made easier? Isn’t part of the beauty of artwork knowing that someone put their all into creating something for the pure joy or emotional message of it? If anybody can do it, how do we know that they drew digitally for the beauty of it, instead of the shallow reason that it’s easy? We don’t know and that takes away from the clout of calling something art.
Well, what about writing? Typing is the same thing. It’s not ink to paper and it doesn’t make a person any less of a writer. That was a nice try, but digital drawing and typing are not the same. Writing is a necessary skill used in everyday life, all of the time. Writing is to spending money as typing is to debit cards. The point is spending money and writing are essential life activities, so making them standard and more effortless makes sense. Drawing is not necessary in a practical everyday sense, so why simplify it? Who is this digital drawing app for? It’s for bandwagon-poser-wannabe drawers.
Call it a purist mentality and anti-progressive, but digital drawing is not authentic art. It’s not even considered drawing, so call it something else. The “advantages” of digital drawing may help advertising professionals and hipsters, but an artist wouldn’t take that app seriously. What will they come up with next? Since putting a picture together in an app is drawing, it’s only a matter of time until they figure out how to swim from an app.
Feature/Art
Who Needs To Draw Anymore When There's An App?
By Chanie U. | March 8, 2016
Feature/Writing
Get To Know Rachel Schullo
By Chanie U. | March 8, 2016
Rachel Schullo is a contributing wordsmith who has been helping Priceless Pennies as an editor lately (thank you!). Words are her bread and butter, but don’t make the mistake of limiting her talents. “Visually speaking, it’s more of what the piece is saying, rather than the medium that’s used to convey the message,” she explained when asked her favorite art medium.
Not only does she contribute to Priceless Pennies, Rachel Schullo co-runs Not Behind You, which she describes as a “feminist-leaning social commentary blog.” As if balancing Priceless Pennies and Not Behind You isn’t enough, she also finds time to dabble in visual and web design.
Rachel Schullo found Priceless Pennies, thanks to a little disappointment, after she decided to pursue writing. Naturally, she wanted a degree from a Fancy Art School of creative writing. Everything was going according to plan until she came to terms with the reality of the cost. Upset and discouraged for a few days—understandably so, who wants their dreams snatched from them?—Rachel Schullo’s mother gave her sound advice, “Get over it because you don’t need a fancy art school degree to be a writer.” Instead of giving up or ignoring her mother’s sage words, she pulled herself together and searched for writing opportunities. Priceless Pennies had one and the rest is history.
Rachel Schullo loves Priceless Pennies for one main reason; Priceless Pennies embraces the strange and quirky. Priceless Pennies forces her to explore things she wouldn’t have otherwise, challenges her as a writer, and still gives her creative freedom. “As a writer, it’s a great outlet for me to explore avenues that I wouldn’t normally,” she said. “I wrote a stream of consciousness piece to go with a monster an artist created. Writing that fast without editing myself really pushed me out of my comfort zone. Having creative freedom that PP provides is great for an artist like myself.” Speaking of other artists, with the creative freedom Priceless Pennies offers, she hopes to collaborate with more artists in the future.
Finally, she would like to leave some encouraging words for other artists, “Create whatever you want to create, no matter how horrible you might think it is. If you want to paint something and you’ve never painted before, do it! By taking that first creative step you’re putting yourself on a path towards an outlet that you’ll connect with. Also, there will always be someone better than you. Much better. Once you accept that, you have the freedom to make art YOU want to make, not the art that you think will make you better.”
To keep up with Rachel Schullo’s happenings follow her on twitter (@rachelschullo), Instagram (@paxenbe), and bookmark her personal website.
