Why do you paint? Why do you dedicate hundreds upon hundreds of your free hours into painting little plastic miniatures? Why do you invest so much money that your wallet starts to scream in the language of financial deprivation?
These are the important questions we should be asking ourselves. For with asking, we start to see what's really important in our lives, and realise that all of the positive aspects of this hobby do outweigh any of the negatives.
Since starting painting last year, and spending more and more time learning about and watching the community, I've found the desire to launch my phone out the window increase. There seems to be less importance focused on people's amazing paintjobs, original ideas, and jaw dropping artistic concepts, with more interaction being found in complaining and bitching about almost anything.
Whilst it's very understandable to be so passionate about a hobby such as this, only seeing the negative side to every single aspect is a one way ticket to an aneurysm. Being English and living in England, I know people like to have a good rant about any and everything, and in some cases, this is absolutely beneficial. The whole 'good vibes only' ideology spreading itself like a cheery nurgle plague through social media is the perfect example of intolerance gone mad, as negativity and cynicism is a very important part of real life, and trying to surround yourself with only things that make your smile and happy is quite frankly, delusional. But never seeing the good in something you dedicate a huge portion of your soul to, just doesn't make any logical sense whatsoever.
So it begs the question; why? If aspects of this hobby cause you grief, whether through
Games Workshop's marketing decisions or other hobbyists selling their souls for social media fame, then why do you invest so much of yourself into it? It's not healthy to be so unhappy all of the time, and this hobby is supposed to be mentally healing, as it is for so many people.
Some of these grievances I completely get behind, such as social media destroying the hobby with all the importance attributed to influencers, as opposed to all the wonderful artwork out there. If there's one thing this modern world could truly do without, it's absolutely influencers. And I also agree that with all the price increases, Games Workshop could try to ensure their customer service is also tip top, rather than start to lose sight of what the company is about in favour of more money. But ultimately we live in a capitalist society, so we should be raising our pitchforks against that, rather than the businesses that do what they can and must to survive.
But there has to be balance, and there is absolutely a line. So if you are someone who views this hobby very negatively now, I want to know why you still participate, and why you haven't just thrown in the towel to save yourself an early stress related death. It's only with this self reflection, that we can start turning this painting community back into the community I hear about from the old days, where it truly was just about the painting.
A prominent force of true goodness in this hobby, in the form of Rae of @raerah, has already been unfortunate enough to be subject to some of my ranting, but allowed me to realise that I'm far from alone in these thoughts and feelings about the hobby. She showed me another hobbyist, @casualarmypainter, who has a podcast series aptly named 'Are we having fun yet?'. I think this perfectly encapsulates the point I'm attempting to make here; that we're slowly turning something that is only supposed to be fun, into something that we resent. I truly recommend having a chat with both of those guys if you're feeling a sizeable chip on your shoulder. (Not that I've asked them whether they'd appreciate that, but I'm sure they'll at least tolerate you, you lucky thing).
So please, let's have a dialogue about the problems, so we can start to become the catalyst of change, removing the rot from our precious hobby in order to restore it to what matters. Obviously everyone gets their own thing out of this hobby, but for me, purely a painter, I want to see painting as the priority, celebrating each others artworks, inspiring us to keep pushing to greater painting lengths. Only then maybe will we stop caring about how many people have 'liked' a post, or which influencer receives things for free that we have to spend our hard earned money on. Only then will we realise it's only ever been about the painting, and that's the only thing that ultimately matters.
This is up for discussion, so do please get in touch if you have anything you'd like to add or discuss.
If you would like to have something to say more formally via an article, then please get in contact via plasticpreacher@gmail.com or @plasticpreacher on Instagram.
Thanks for reading!
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