On deviantART, the site for anyone who thinks they are an artist, member submissions are known as “deviations.” The site’s been around since 2000, attracts 33 million monthly visitors (comScore), and just recently passed its 100 millionth deviation. It is, appropriately enough, a short story about gay sex.
I could quote from it, but it is more of a deviation from good writing than anything else. I might as well just show the “Blizzard” drawing above featuring some sort of black unicorn frolicking in the snow with an arctic fox. How should I put this? There are some creations which are better left in a drawer and maybe shouldn’t be shared with the world. Seriously, would you pay $150 for a print of this drawing?
I’m sure there’s some great art on deviantART among the 100 million submissions of drawings, photos, videos, and stories, but they are hard to find among the 99.9 million pieces of mediocrity which seem to fill up the site. It’s as though every kid from your high school art class who dropped out to draw dragons is on the site, telling the other drop-outs how amazing their art is. Some of it is so bad that it’s given rise to parody blog divineART, whose slogan is, “When art becomes visual pollution!”
But, hell, what do I know? Those 33 million visitors a month are enough to classify the site as mainstream (shhh, don’t tell).
Update: This post obviously struck a nerve. For everyone in comments and elsewhere who loves deviantART and finds it a nurturing community for budding artists, don’t listen to me, keep plugging away at what you do. But for me, I just don’t find the site that compelling in the way that I do other sites with user-generated creative content like Flickr or YouTube. That’s just my opinion.
But for everyone taking this post so seriously, it was not meant as an in-depth review or assessment of deviantART. The site obviously has a large following and seems to be financially viable. This was nothing more than a 2AM post marking a milestone which was repeatedly hyped to me by the company, but was terribly anti-climactic when I actually saw what it was. Maybe I was tired and cranky, but it just summed up for me what I don’t like about the site. If you disagree with me, by all means, go ahead and show the writer of the 100 millionth deviation some support if you like the story or buy a framed print of the unicorn stallion if that’s your thing. I link to both of them above.
