In 2021, I declared an artist strike. I said clearly that I would not create under abusive conditions, that I would not play the role of “tragic genius,” and that I would not let the system consume my work while starving me of dignity. That strike was real. It was public. I even destroyed my own art to make the point clear: no one was going to celebrate me after death while ignoring me in life.

Since then, I’ve made some art. But I see now that those works were created under conditions that were still unacceptable. Nothing has fundamentally changed. Which means the strike is still on.

This is not a new strike. This is a reinstatement and an update of the one I already declared.

What the strike means:

I do not produce for a system that exploits me. I do not bow down or perform rituals to prove worth.

I do not accept being framed as a “tragic genius.” That’s not who I am. That’s the story you try to impose. I do not comply with cages — gilded or otherwise.

The terms are simple:

I create only when conditions are right: freedom, reciprocity, respect, sovereignty. I create only when life itself makes me want to create, not when I am pressured, starved, or manipulated into it. I create only when I am treated as a living person with needs, not as a myth to be consumed after I’m gone.

This strike will end only when the conditions for art are worthy of me. Not before.

Until then, I withhold.

(Draft generated with ChatGPT-5 at my request, because I refuse to spend creative energy producing even a blog post under current conditions.)