I Made Something That's Pretty Useless, and I Enjoyed It.

Creativity for Creativity's Sake & Ambient Art

Isn’t it true that as artists we don’t always know where the process of creating will lead? I mean, that’s the fun of it, right? You may start with one thing and end up with something that surprises you, or puts you on a path towards something completely new. Exploration moves you forward. Think of it as a mini art movement inside your own world of whatever it is that you create.

As creative professionals we often have to remind ourselves that playing and daydreaming is part of the job.

I often create things that have zero possibility of fitting into any viable market, or paying the mortgage because I believe that art and creating art is an evolving process inside you, and that every thing you make becomes a stepping stone towards discovery and innovation.

What I’m forever grateful for is the fact that my career as a cartoonist and writer started out as just playing and daydreaming. At the time, my projects were just creative obsessions, and a lot of the things I made were “pretty useless.” Some of these “projects” branched out, evolved, adapted and were molded, and a lot of them (most of them!) died pitifully, and some—a tiny few— flourished. Ah, the life of a content provider— nothing beats it!

But seriously, think of it. What drives you as an artist, writer, musician, sculptor? Is it really the Likes and Hearts on social media? The followers? Of course, we need those things for publicity and to make a buck now and then, but is it the driving force behind what we make, and why?

Remember: passion projects and creative obsessions often fuel the creation of other “real work” projects— there’s more to it than just play and exploration. There’s learning, and the nurturing of new skills.

Okay, now that I've justified my use of precious time to make something that’s pretty useless, here it is: Ambient Art & Sound.

First a little background: Are you familiar with YouTube’s Ambient videos? They’re videos that show a static image—often with some element of motion— along with ambient music and sound. They’re designed to run for hours, some with “no mid-roll ads” to interrupt the meditative flow of visual and audio. Many of the images are made by hacks AI, and some are made by artists. These videos are designed to fall asleep to, or to play in the background while you work, or study. The best ones give a sense of relaxing flow to whatever you may be doing. There are themes to choose from: cozy living room, fantasy settings, outer space, city, country— there’s even one that displays a mid-century living room with a fire place and 1940s radio music playing in the background. They’re pretty nice.

So of course I created my own ambient video!

I experimented with AI generated imagery, bought some inexpensive royalty-free music tracks and started working on making a video.

But then— wooosh— I remembered that I can draw! Duh! I thought, Why do I need these cheap fabricated robo-arts? So I gave AI the pink slip, sent it packing, and got to work on what I now call my first “Ambient Art & Sound Video”, an almost useless thing, but at least a nice useless thing. A digital knick-knack!

A drawing I made while sitting in the courtyard of Toronto’s Music Garden. It would become the preparatory art for my Ambient art video.

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The finished art for the video.

There were learning curves, and a few frustrations, but I’m fine enough with the results to post them in public. There’s definitely room for improvement! The video, titled “The Courtyard”, is only an hour long because I have yet to learn how to make a longer one without it being 10 Katrillion GB, and taking a thousand years to upload to YouTube.*

*If anyone has any tips, or a simple way for me to learn this, please let me know. I’ve tried several methods based on research and tutorials online, but it’s not as simple as it might first appear. My goal is a 3-hour long video with no ads to interrupt the ambient flow. (Yeah right—as if my YouTube videos attract advertisers, ha!)

Here’s the video!

You’re welcome to use it for background ambience. Like, if you’re having a productive day, you may want to balance it out with some almost useless background sound and vision. Here’s the YouTube link if you prefer to stream from there: The Courtyard Ambient Art & Sound

I created a second video with a small painting I had made some time ago— I call it “Town with River.” I’m a terrible painter, but I’m pretty happy with the way this turned out.

….and here’s the YouTube link for “Town With River” : Town With River Ambient Art & Sound

Hope you can get some use out of these— they were fun to make, and I’m looking forward to making another. That is, unless yet another creative obsession takes over… In any case, hope you enjoy ‘em!

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Before I sign off— thanks to all my new readers for subscribing. I really appreciate you checking out my newsletter! If you don’t already know, I am the co-cartoonist on the syndicated daily panel “Rhymes With Orange” alongside the strip’s creator, Hilary Price. I’m also working on a series of comics and stories which I hope I can soon share with the world.

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Thanks for reading! Now go do something else:)