DeviantART is an online community of artists, offering free membership and the opportunity to share work with others and browse through their material, not to mention meet new and interesting (read “weirdass”) people. Deals with writing, art, photography, animation, just about everything under the sun, if it’s mildly more creative than a payroll account DeviantART’ll have a slot for it.
It’s one of those things online that show you how huge and how tiny the world really is, the counter currently reads that 13,479,141 pieces of original art have been submitted and are available to be browsed, and it’s still moving forwards faster than I can type. 173 now, but I paused to scratch my butt in mid-sentence, so that could have influenced the timing. Deviants from all around the world are joined together in a single pseudo-place, accessible from anywhere there’s a computer and a phone signal. It’s amazing how easy it is to get used to that kind of idea, forget how incredibly mind-boggling it is, every time I actually think about it I feel dizzy (the same applies here on Shvoong, why I want to write for them and help to build this library, you could be from Canada or Alaska or South America or any number of places that don’t end with a vowel, but you can access this piece as easy as if I was in the next room).
People find work here, friends, insight, pointers to help them on their way to mastering their chosen crafts, projects to collaborate on, recognition of talent, all kinds of cool stuff. And it’s free so you really don’t have all that much to lose. It can be cool being in a community of artists, rather than being just one man struggling against an oppressive solar system. It can really help feeling that other people are making the same journey you are, give you a real sense of togetherness, and union with a great collective creative force.
But if isolation is your bag then that’s cool as well.
Sometimes the lone wolf must hunt the truth alone.