Hearing from Art Friends this year that their holiday art sales are pretty low -- maybe in part the economy, but I'm also guessing it's how AI has fucked some shit up. As such, if you can spend money on real art by humans this holiday, please do.

I really wish there was a list of those not on etsy because it's hard to find those types of shops (for me at least) because im not sure where to search

Already have. 👍

Good to know I wasn't the only one.. Or bad that it's like this too? Ah...

Thanks for saying this...sales are definitely down but Santa's artsy little helpers are persevering

I suspect the death of Twitter, myself—discoverability fell off a cliff there.

This is the season for holiday craft fairs, so if you don't know where to find artists, take advantage of those. I like to buy greeting cards direct from artists and I always get my MIL a hand-made ornament along with other gifts.

yes! people generally are appreciative to receive handmade gifts more so than store bought

On behalf of myself and the Art Friends network, thanks for this. Everyone's having issues right now, it seems.

The economy has really eaten up people's pocket change. Inflation is eating all the COL increases that were already overdue, interest rates are through the roof, rents are too high and still going up, and economists have been beating the recession drum so anxiety. I think AI art is a niche crowd.

My suspicion is more the economy TBH. (AI art is bad but I can't imagine it's truly the thing that's taking so much money away.) I'm still puzzling/stressing over why the live holiday show I'm producing has sold significantly fewer tickets than every other year & most of our normal monthly shows.