[New Year's Greeting]

Hey everyone, I wish you all a belated Happy New Year.

The weeks after Christmas and at the end of last year were insanely busy, my little apartment was frequented by relatives and friends who paid me a visit. Some of them stayed overnight, so I was barely online or able to get my projects done properly at my workstation. Whew, that was pretty stressful, I always get really nervous when I can't actively draw for hours. Often I just wish I could give people a little insight into my head and my very unpredictable schedule, in hopes of providing some transparency and maybe some understanding for my sporadic absence. Not gonna lie, a lot of my stress and anxiety comes from feeling pressured during breaks and interruptions by private and often very spontaneous family circumstances that, on the other hand, I naturally don't want to divulge for personal reasons, so I'm always in a conflicted and overwhelmed state that also often cumulates into existential crises and anxiety.

I still need to get off my chest how immensely frustrating this whole last year has felt for me, as it has also been a huge source of my mental health issues that have really taken a toll on me. I'm sure most people who are active on these platforms mainly to consume and enjoy content are pretty sick of this subject by now, but for me as an artist it's really hard to ignore how absolutely unfair the overall situation feels with AI companies and art theft piracy sites. Not to mention the whole situation with the Pixiv policies, which was caused by the impact of the former and ultimately led to the suspension of many genuine and hardworking 3D artists who were active on the site for years, only to be driven out even though they had the least to do with the actual cause of the policy problems. And too often I and my fellow artists have had to witness laziness and theft with the goal of making a quick buck being nurtured with the work of others, along with an incomprehensible hostility towards us who only want to share our creative drive and hard work that brings us and other people much fun and joy.

I have become aware of a new dark side of mass consumption since learning the thoughts of the majority of the hypocritical piracy communities who see us artists as mere production machines from which they can steal our content for their own profitable use on their site. While I've never approved of reposts, I've never been overly critical of repost sites until last year when I learned that the administrators and operators of the sites were quite enthusiastic about the whole AI art trend and the art theft companies that promote their data packages with the names of popular artists they want to technically replace (nothing can convince me otherwise that promoting 1:1 imitation of the artist's personal style is not an unethical replacement at its very core). To me, the enthusiasm expressed by reposting site operators about the (currently - as it is now - unethical) machine learning generators is no different from that expressed by thieves who are excited about new opportunities for even more stolen goods - their own sites obviously benefit from the high upload frequency and activity due to the flooded AI stuff. The same goes for the pirate sites that claim they are doing all this under the guise of pseudo-democracy in the name of open source mentality (while most artists in the Weebs sphere were not gate-keeping their content in the first place and live in extreme poverty), while at the same time making profit with their advertising infra structure on their servers.

For now, it is an impossible conflict for us vulnerable artists alone to solve, and also an unbalanced power play with mindsets of double-standards, and all I want and can only hope for is that some day hard labour and work with all its sacrifices will somehow pay off for us artists.

It is already hard enough for an NSFW artist to get seen on social media, as your flagged, sensitive content and the algorithms enforcing a reach, view and search restriction onto your account making you technically invisible. Social media and the wrecked algorithms also affected my mental health a lot over the years, which is why I did a lot of research to combat my own frustrations about the overwhelming feeling of arbitrary and non-transparency.

All of this may sound rather overdramatic, but it's my earnest, genuine thoughts that keep me thinking every day about the purpose and long-term motivation of my work. But don't get me wrong, despite the chaotic situation, I haven't lost the urge to create more art and pursue my lewd urge to create ero stuff, and all because I think that despite all the weight and uncertainty, I'm still blessed with the supportive and encouraging minds that have helped me in one way or another through this difficult time, whether financially or with kind words. I know it must sound cheesy, but rest assured how grateful I am for anything you considered doing to help me, and I also hope you will let other artists you like as well know how much you appreciate their work in the same way!

I still have some open work left over from the Christmas season, I think I'll just take it into January. I hope you stay excited and healthy as always!

Big thanks for your patronage and company!

~Octoppoi~

PS: I hope you like my Pyon illustration. Cute bunny is from the series Hunter x Hunter. More bunny girl art will follow to highlight this Year's Chinese zodiac.