The Nameless Artist

Most artists I’ve met are generally very intent on being known for their work. I mean there’s people like Banksy who prefer to remain anonymous, but I’m more accustomed to the vfx world that gets in a tizzy that they aren’t higher on the priority list in film credits (truth be told, it’s actually rather offensive knowing that I’ve been left off the credits of the upcoming Ender’s Game film… but I digress).

I’ve always found it rather weird that many actors have stage names, writers have pen names, and artists (at least online) have pseudonyms. It can be a struggle sometimes on sites like Deviant Art to find out the name of the person whose creations you’re looking at. Yet growing up reading comic books, and having a painter for a grandmother, I was imbued with a sense having an artist’s signature was somewhat important.

This article over on Unwinnable about Evan Amos, who photographs game consoles with the intent of sharing the photos on Wikipedia is pretty interesting. Sometimes making art is just about doing something that you want other people to appreciate, regardless of whether they’ll appreciate the person who did it. It’d be rad if he could meet his kickstarter goal.