Hello! I am an artist and I work with a lot of video. Video art was the first thing I really made and it made me totally fall in love with contemporary art. These are my tips:
- Keep your ideas safe. Keep them written down in a sketchbook, notebook, notes app so you don't forget them. Log them every time you have them. Add as many notes as you can (visual ideas, story boards, colours, references etc). Go back and read them regularly until you feel you have the right circumstances to make them. Maybe it needs some planning to make happen or maybe you can do it there and then
- Watch video art made by artists. At first I found it really weird and inaccessible but then it just sort of clicked. Now I look back on the first ones I saw with great admiration and they became important influences. I recommend diving into the work of: Pipilotti Rist, Hito Steyerl, Signe Pierce, Kara Walker, Molly Soda, Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, Ryan Trecartin & Julianknxx as a good place to start. Watching in a gallery is great because the intended viewing experience is usually central to the work but you will also gain a lot from just finding the films online. You should be able to find them mostly on Vimeo but also YouTube and the artists' own websites.
- Be self sufficient but also make stuff with your friends! You can do literally everything you need to do with a phone and a video editing app (I like You cut and Videoshop). Equipment limitations can be a really good thing and will force you to think outside the box. However, work with your friends! My friends were in all my first videos and now I'm ten years in and they're still happy to be involved, whether that's holding a camera or acting in a scene. It's really fun to work collaboratively together if you're into the same kind of things and you will remember the experience for a long time.
- Free software: I have a Mac so I used iMovie for a long time but before that when I was a kid I spent all my time on Windows Movie Maker and taught myself so much. Audacity is a good free sound editing software. You can find every sound you'll ever need on royalty free sound websites. YouTube has a tutorial for everything but if it doesn't just bodge it til you get something!
- think about where you want people to view it before and during your making process. Things to consider: what device (projector, TV, other), how is it mounted, are there headphones or speakers? This will help shape your ideas
- don't be afraid to share it but also don't care about the reception! Vimeo is a good place to keep your art films. If you don't get any likes on social media don't let it stop you from creating. Art films and social media are often not a recipe for success, maybe it just needs to be in a gallery to make sense.
- this is a lot of advice but don't let it overwhelm you, the most important thing is to just follow your instincts and create as often as you feel like you want to and enjoy every part of learning your craft!
Mar 23, 2025
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i'm trying to make myself smarter and my paintings better, so i've been staying up late–until i can feel myself falling asleep on the couch–and watching videos of other, way more successful artists talking to public access tv people about their work. growing up my dad always did the same thing, except instead of consuming media about culture or philosophy, he would watch like, ghost adventures, or shows about building cars.
linked is my favorite clip that i've watched recently; an artist with no pretentions and who uses their work to invest in and be a creative catalyst for their local community is something that i strive to be. also, did anybody else here get a BFA and just absolutely love getting assigned to watch one of these videos???
Mar 27, 2024
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i make things as a hobby, whether it be bits of music, awful drawings, writing, whatever, and i find that i work best after admiring others’ art.
maybe it inspires me, maybe it’s just how things work in my head, but i feel that art, or any sort of creation, comes from creation, and so, it‘s ALRIGHT to use something else as a reference point, or rather, consume something before you create!!
i like just sitting with something for a while, eventually something pops into my mind and gets my thoughts going. sitting with an instrument and messing around makes it easier to make something up, or scribbling makes it easier to think of what to draw.
also, doing what’s best for you, whether that be taking ages to come up with an idea, and even longer to see it through, or making lots in a small amount of time. YOU do whatever is best for YOU, and probably your sanity. just generally loll
have a lovely day slayyyy 💕
Oct 29, 2024
As someone who has and continues to struggle finding who I am as an artist and what I want to make, somehow this just clicked so perfectly for me. It looks so scary to begin with but there’s so many videos online on how to learn it. I feel like you can take this and run in so many diff directions with it.
Jan 14, 2025
Top Recs from @caskeyc
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1. Don't set an alarm and wake up naturally. Snooze for however long you want to, it's okay
2. Have breakfast. For me it's toast. Have it with butter/jam/honey and a lot of water and coffee and juice.
3. Listen to an album in full and do some puzzles until it ends. I like to stick a record on and do the nyt games (connections, then wordle, then the mini, then I'm ready for a crossword)
4. Shower and use all your best stuff. Smell great. Make your hair feel soft.
5. Wear an outfit you don't get to wear that often. I tend to wear the same thing over and over at work so I wear something a bit more fun and less practical.
6. Go outside. I live near a road with secondhand shops that are great browsing but quite tempting on a budget. To beat the temptation just look in the windows and then walk round the streets or to a green space if it's a nice day. Walk as fast or as slow as you like. Try and spot cats that might let you stroke them. See how each place you go smells different. Walk down streets that you've not been down before just because.
7. Come home and decide how much energy you have. If you have energy do an activity (I would write, play an instrument, do some art, read, play a game) if you don't then watch something from your watchlist. Saturdays feel like a good day to watch something new.
8. Cook yourself a meal. Start before you're hungry and spend ages on it. Use every pot. Listen to music. Sing whilst you wash the dishes.
9. Play! Video games, board games, internet games, card games, phone games, rearrange your plushies, embrace your inner child. Play with ideas, experiment with felt tip pens, write a limerick. Get silly with it.
10. Talk to your friends. Invite them over, call somebody up, text that person back you didn't have time to. I like to spend a good day off by myself then have a great time talking to people after I've recharged.
11. Have so much fun getting to do whatever you want you fall asleep at whatever time. Monday - Friday is about appeasing your body clock, Saturdays are for filthy pleasures like falling asleep at 3am because you were too busy flirting or reading or watching videos.
Apr 16, 2024
Re: my last rec I'm kinda realizing reading this might have changed my life actually
Apr 16, 2024