Turning over a new leaf Tanya Combrinck meets seven artists to hear how they plan to tackle what the coming year brings in these challenging times
It has been a tough year in the art world in 2023. Strikes brought things to a standstill in the entertainment industry, change in the social media landscape has continued to diminish artists’ online presence, and the galloping progress of generative AI, which has impacted incomes and created anxiety about the future.
So, as the year draws to a close, we spoke to a range of artists about how they think these challenges will unfold in 2024, the intentions they’re setting for themselves, and their hopes for the upcoming year.
Among the group, there’s a trend growing towards returning to the basic elements at the core of one’s creativity and focusing on personal work. Illustrator Amelia Leonards puts it like this: “It’s time to imbue our work with as much personality and humanity as possible. Anybody can click a button and generate an image scraped from stolen art, so it’s important to show why we’re driven to create.”
THE EVOLVING THREAT
The use of AI-generated images is one aspect of a general business strategy that Amelia says has made it largely impossible for artists outside of the very highest tier to make a living from just working in traditional illustration. “Business is built around cutting as many corners as possible to increase profits and better the lives of a very select few, and the world around us is increasingly championing the cheap, fast and fake,” she says.
For individuals, Amelia’s solution to this is something she credits to the US-based artist Timothy Von Rueden, who likens an art business to a table. “Your table should have four legs, or income streams, with a fifth leg standing by just in case one of them fails,” she explains.
