Art is universal, and like dance or music it evokes emotion from its viewers. Traditionally, we know that art is often found in museums or galleries, but the rise of social media has allowed us to spread art faster, and therefore it has facilitated the fame of lesser known artists.





Reddit:

One of the artists that easily comes to mind from Reddit is Noah Bradley. The first time I heard about Noah was through Reddit’s art Subreddit where he posted his story. Noah has drawn and created artwork arguably his whole life. Noah’s fame came from his transition to digital landscapes and fantasy creatures. He has designed stills for video games, Magic The Gathering cards and Dungeons and Dragons artwork.

Noah is extremely talented.

On a less serious note, Reddit hosts two silly resident artists: u/AWildSketchAppeared and u/Shitty_WaterColour, who recently battled it out online to determine which random artist was better. The battle involved sloths… and it was a tie.

Both artists draw random stories and situations from Reddit while the posts are still relevant. Out of context the situations are ridiculous. Let’s play a game called “Guess the Situation.”







Situation One: By u/AWildSketchAppeared

Situation 2: By u/Shitty_WaterColour

You win.

DeviantArt:

DeviantArt is the art community online. My favorite DeviantArt artists is jefftoon or Jeffrey Thomas, who created the Twisted Princess series, seemingly before others joined the Disney spinoff bandwagon. Again, his talent and creativity is what has allowed him to succeed. Jeff decided it would be cool to turn Disney’s oh-so-sweet princesses salty and vengeful. Thanks Jeff, you’re awesome.





From Websites to Social Media :

Blogs/websites are fantastic because artists can post all of their work and easily share it on Facebook and Twitter.

Jessica Harrison is a UK artists who creates some pretty creepy, albeit fantastic, sculptures. She has a series where she transformed grandma’s porcelain figures into macabre masterpieces. Now she shares her artwork on Facebook and currently has an exhibit at the Bonnefanten Museum. If you are easily grossed out.. sorry.

Cool right? Here bone pieces are even creepier.

Adam Ellis is the creative genius of The Books of Adam. I spent a whole weekend in undergrad reading through the comical stories on his Books of Adam website. My two favorite stories are: (1) when a homeless lady threw a coconut at him, and (2) when he created gym member archetypes. He’s hysterical and he used to live in Portland. Adam now shares different content via Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter… and he works for Buzzfeed. He also wrote a book.

Can I be him when I grow up?

(If you haven’t seen it, he’s drawing a Vine).

How about that time when Banksy created a month-long scavenger hunt in New York City that was facilitated through Twitter and social media? He sold original artwork on the street for $60… but they looked like knockoffs.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <?xml encoding="UTF-8" ?>

https://safe.txmblr.com/svc/embed/inline/https://www.youtube.com/embed/5ikp_OfIrgw?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque?w=540&h=304

The passerby’s reactions after they found out:

Hindsight is 20/20 friends.

The last website is a pretty cool mashup that hits you right in the heart. HIT RECORD is a community art project founded by Joseph Gordon Levitt, and it packs an emotional punch. You can earn some extra cash and be a part of a creative community that results in beautiful videos like this: http://www.hitrecord.org/records/1502955.

And so we conclude…

TL; DR: If you have a modicum of talent, you can grow as an artist through social media, as long as you create relevant, funny, or interesting content. If you have droves of talent… then you may be the next Noah or Adam. There is something out there for everyone.



Although social media is really cool for sharing art, I still prefer museums. If you want to attend local Oregon museums for free, check out the Portland Art Museum on the fourth Friday of every month after 5pm, or The Hallie Ford Museum in Salem on Tuesdays!

Check out our other Community Insights to learn about how makeup or nutrition intersect with social media!

Community Insights Part 1: Makeup Artists

Community Insights Part 2: How a Registered Dietitian Uses Social Media

Community Insights Part 3: Gaming for a Living

Community Insights Part 4: Traveling

Thanks for reading!

(I can draw a shitty sketch too.)