please support genuine craftsmanship
honest to god. temu, aliexpress, shein, print-on-demand services, and generative AI have made thrifting, antiquing, and vendor markets a LOT less enjoyable. i never liked such shoddy knockoff products growing up, and i hate them even more nowadays.
i live in an area of illinois with a very expressive artist community, so i naturally like to go to vendor markets, antique malls, and art festivals. and whenever i see cheap mugs, water bottles, wall signs, or t-shirts with obviously AI-generated images, with their fake plasticine sheen and garbled imagery... i die a little inside. that is NOT what i come to vendor markets for. i come to them to see genuine craftsmanship.
any joe everyman can ask chatGPT to generate an image of a cat wearing sunglasses, and then order a bunch of mugs with said image. "when everyone's an artist, no one will be." but that's not art. it's more like a get-rich-quick-scheme. and who actually wants that junk? no, the true artists are the ones who can craft candles and care products, embroider unique clothes, hats, or lampshades out of loose fabric, paint a gorgeous portrait, composite a beautiful photograph, or crochet cute little animals and pouches and stuff. i'm confident that that's what buyers are really looking for: artists who take time to learn how to create something special with their own two hands.
please support genuine craftsmanship. not get-rich quick schemes.