About this image

I did not participate in the screenshot contest because I have been busy and/or consumed by depression, but I've noticed some things surrounding it.

There seems to be a lot of hostility surrounding the definition of "art," what people are allowed to call art, how it's unfair to make something a competition, etc.

I'm an artist, I have been drawing since I was three. I have participated in art contests and such before. Ranked fifth nationally in a certain high school honors club thing. I have had friends who are not artists, who got fed up with me because of jealousy. They were angry I could win attention and cash doing something they were incapable of doing for whatever reason. It nearly made me stop drawing entirely.

This is an extremely toxic attitude to have, and while I understand it's not fair to view something unrelated to my personal troubles through that lens, I still must wonder...

I started out playing Skyrim on a piece of crap laptop, no ENB, I even had to disable all shadows to get playable frames. I didn't understand screenshots, FOV, poses, etc until I was maybe two years into actually modding the game. I've been playing Skyrim since 2015 and only in the last year do I feel I've really hit my stride as far as understanding how it all works goes.

I feel I've worked hard on my own to figure things out and refine my own technique. That in itself qualifies as a skill, yes? Hours I could have spent devoted to something else poured into this because it's one of my special interests and I want to be good at it.

While nothing is perfect and an approach to competition should be examined for potential flaws, etc, I feel the amount of negative backlash the event has gotten is a little silly.

I don't consider myself someone whose voice matters in this "community" but I do think I can speak anyway. And what I have to say is, maybe don't be hostile to people because they've developed skills you haven't. Because it's certainly not something you learn overnight. Whether a screenshot is "art" or not is a question I don't think I can answer, because I haven't been at this long enough or taken it seriously enough. But I do intend to participate in the next screenshot event.

Disclaimer: I don't belong in any social circles here, I don't know anyone really on a first name basis, all of you are just screen names to me. So I feel I'm unbiased in that regard. I'm just speaking based on what I have seen.

It's in our nature to feel bitter and angry when someone gets attention and we don't, but we mustn't let it create unnecessary hostility and trouble.