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Comment by nine_k | Hacker News Reader

This means that to improve one's chances to gain publicly, one should adjust their art to the exact requirements of the publicity-producing organization, and not let artistic whims like "inspiration" ruin the day. Or, better yet, has to learn how to reorient the latter slightly to check every box when a checklist becomes available.

This requires a serious mastery of the art that allows to obtain exactly what's envisioned.

It also rubs many artists the wrong way, because they want to be led by the art, ideas, concepts, etc, and not by external riders. OTOH most great masters of the past worked under such conditions, with notable success. Michelangelo certainly had a rather detailed list of requirements for the Sistine Chapel paint job.

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It depends on whether you're doing art for the artistic expression or to make a living. If it's the latter, you'll need to do what is asked or what is worth money instead of what you want. This applies to every creative endeavour, or hell, most of anything that earns you money. I don't want to sit here writing user stories that should ideally be fixed today, but it earns me money and I can do it so I guess.

in my experience, your submission does not have to be a carbon copy of what you end up making. you can check the boxes to make them trust your artistic ability - then you can make it yours, within reason. the money controls the art outcome, until you're banksy. a lot of great artists are able to stylistically and thematically change their art on a whim, by studying the materials/style and putting conscious effort in. this is not rare. modern art does not require mastery by any means and some of the more successful artists actively avoid perfectionism.

Modern art may not require visible utter technical mastery, even though sometimes it's demonstrated, too. What I mean by mastery is the ability to produce such an oevre that checks all the right boxes, and does not check any wrong boxes. In this regard, being edgy and provocative is the right trait to demonstrate, while overstepping it and, say, showing something that can be seen as bigotry is not comme il faut. Navigating these boundaries efficiently is what I also mean by mastery.

I agree with what your saying but I believe this applies to everything in life.

From what you do at work or say to your friends to whether you break a writing rule or whether you jump a fence.

When you observe people in their element, you can tell apart the people who know know when to break rules and who haven’t figured it out.

I mean, anyone's free to create whatever art they want on their own time and dime, and accept that it may or may not resonate with others and their pocketbooks. If you're applying for a specific thing for someone to give you money and they've said what they're looking for...yeah, you should probably conform to that.

Yep!

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