So, besides writing, posting, commenting, and shouting at each other over millions of theoretical ideas, debates, etc., or making new friends (or enemies) on blogs, I thought that informal content would actually be the best—and longest-lasting—form of “conversation.”
In the mixture of personal touch and emotion, there can always be found a certain note of the complex negotiation between the self, skills, environment, cultural background, cultural groups and subgroups, affiliations…
I think that “the vibe” or “general feel” is what really creates the impression, even though it’s never very clear how the sum of the parts will actually work together to produce a final result.
Of course, I was always mixing in some theoretical principiality—just to expand a potential discussion into other areas of interest. Actually, drawing freestyle was meant to introduce a few types of freestyle concepts into the equation. Even something as simple as using markers could have meant anything from genetics to the teenager who used to doodle in the back of his notebook. Etc.
I was also trying to test how a mixture of personal content and theoretical issues/principles would react when “inserted” into a new medium, like the internet.
Sadly, I had to discover that the internet is somehow “stained” with a mental attitude that seems common across all users. Even though, in recent years, as it has become more popular, the internet has been taken over more and more by common sense, there are still endless debates around principiality, style, origin of ideas, influences, etc. —for those who are actually interested, anyway.
That’s why I felt the need to migrate into a more specific niche, to try to reduce all influences, “quotes,” similarities, etc. But then again, the negotiation between these two “sides” or opposites is always made through the creative’s choice. Since I never really knew the full nature of the “internet public” (and it’s true it changes constantly), I thought that every stage of the experiment—or the redevelopment of my drawing skills—should have some sort of theoretical concept or main idea, or at least be placed within a principled framework.
So why mix principles like open-source software, or “free” tools (markers, liners), or paint, or ink wash? Because none of these things can really be judged or argued about under the rules of any particular establishment. Taste and style can only be discussed in equally subjective terms. Feedback will generally take the form of metaphor, and any other kind of intervention must (or will) come from a completely different spectrum.
I was also interested in seeing how feedback is “offered” or “provided,” and how deeply a trained eye—from a different medium or context—can go when analyzing my work. Of course, I had to leave a lot of space for potential digression. And obviously, for instance, an ink wash remains just a blob—or something like a Rorschach stain. I was trying to discover, or at least deduce, the actual composition of the “attitude” of other creatives (from other countries) when facing… content like that.
( written in 2014, on/from file “drawing intentions.txt and then rewritten with ChatGpt )
You can see samples of work from this period on my Behance profile :
PAUL SELING 
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