... deviantart was about art.

yes i dont really make anything any more. yes im not the only person to say this. no i cant make a difference. i just feel the need for a rant.

why the hell is this place now about the amount of "art" friends you have who can fave all your pieces and submit them for daily deviations, rather than being about the art, the work, the beauty? i go to 90% of the sections on this site, change my view to most popular stuff over the last week and expect to see some nice work. am i disappointed with the majority of the results? damn right i am! im getting sick or seeing the same old garbage that isnt really art, its just random crap that all their mates fave for faves in return. like wallpapers that are just a collection of badly cropped stocks that aren't even their own, or bright and cluttered images that just make my eyes want to bleed. and dont get me started on the "fractal" stuff. punch some number into software and let it create the image? how the hell can people submit that claiming it as their own work?!

my first 2 years as a "deviant" were so much different. im not a great artist, ill admit that. i have a memory and eye for small details, but i cant put them to digital canvas well at all, maybe its lack of knowledge of the apps, maybe its just a lack of creativity in me. but when i wanted a nice new wallpaper, skin for winamp, or just to look at some nice digital/traditional art at my own leisure the first thing id do is browse by favorites, and sure enough, that search would produce some of the best, most finely detailed and crafted pieces of work that week has seen by skilled artists of all kinds. i miss those days. deviantart is as good as dead. it might aswell be deviantpopularity. bring back the days when people submitted proper art, and proper art was recognise for what it is.

anyone know of another site that relives those lost days?