Process First: Why the Journey Matters More than the Destination in Art by SonOfLasG
I’ve always been fascinated by the hidden narratives behind a piece of art… the rough sketches, the failed attempts, and the small epiphanies that eventually give birth to something meaningful. If the final artwork is the destination, I’ve come to believe that the process is the fuel that gets us there. That’s where the heart and soul of a creation truly reside: in the messy middle where the artist wrestles with ideas, stumbles, and ultimately finds a way to bring a vision to life. In an age when digital works can be minted, traded, and flipped in a matter of clicks, it’s easy to lose sight of this crucial dimension. But for me, understanding… and savoring… the artistic process is the key to connecting deeply with the art itself.
The Value of Process
What makes an artwork endure? Art historians might point to technique, historical significance, or the artist’s mastery of craft. But I’d argue that process is at the root of all these qualities. Process reveals technique, creates historical significance, and demonstrates mastery. When we learn how a piece was conceived and executed, we see its humanity. We tap into the artist’s vulnerability, determination, and curiosity… qualities that resonate long after a trend has fizzled out.
It’s one thing to admire a beautiful painting or a striking digital piece on the surface; it’s another to feel a direct connection to the work’s evolution. That connection often comes from glimpses behind the curtain: the notes, the sketches, the code, or the community interactions that shaped the final form.
A New Canvas: Bitcoin and Crypto Art
The rise of crypto art (particularly on Bitcoin through Ordinals) has brought a new dimension to how we think about process. On a blockchain, every step of creation can be documented, tracked and preserved. This transparency has the potential to highlight not just the final minted piece but also the digital footprints of how it was made. While speculation often takes centre stage, there’s an undercurrent of creative integrity that emerges when artists and collectors alike begin to focus on process as a form of authenticity.
Four Quick Examples
- Terraforms: Generative art is inherently about process. With Terraforms, the code doesn’t just generate a static image; it encodes the complex interactions of parameters that create endlessly intriguing visual structures. Each Terraform is a snapshot of an evolving, parameter-driven reality… like stepping inside the source code of a digital ecosystem.
- Sam Spratt’s Luci: On the more traditional side of the spectrum, Sam Spratt’s Luci pieces stand out for their painterly depth. But there’s more to them than meets the eye. Anyone who has followed Sam’s updates or glimpsed his concept sketches realizes that each final piece is a distillation of countless revisions, emotional reflections and feedback loops. The final artwork carries that journey within every brushstroke, giving it a weight that purely “finished” pieces often lack.
- Taproot Wizards: This project emphasizes collaborative creation. While there’s a clear visual style (playful, magical wizard avatars) the real magic unfolds in how the community participates in shaping the project’s lore. The “process” isn’t hidden away in a private studio; it plays out in Discord servers, through community. Collecting a Taproot Wizard means collecting a piece of that evolving story.
- Botto: Then there’s Botto, an AI-driven artist that generates countless visual compositions. Here, the community itself selects which creations move forward, essentially guiding the AI’s artistic direction. The final minted work isn’t just an algorithmic output; it’s the product of iterative feedback loops between human curators and the machine. The process behind Botto is as much a social experiment as it is an artistic one, merging artificial intelligence with human taste and critique.
Why Process Lasts Longer Than Hype
Hype in the digital art market is fickle: it can skyrocket a project’s visibility one week, only to vanish the next. But the process has a way of anchoring a piece’s value for the long term. When we connect with the how behind the what, we form a more meaningful bond… one rooted in curiosity, respect and understanding. This bond doesn’t wane simply because market sentiment shifts; instead, it grows stronger as we continue to discover new layers in the work’s conception and execution.
A Personal Compass
As someone who collects and observes web3 art, remembering to look at the process behind each piece acts like a personal compass. It keeps me from being swayed by short-lived trends or eye-popping price tags. Instead, I spend my energy learning how a project came to life, what the artist or team wrestled with along the way and why certain creative decisions were made. That context makes the artwork feel alive, and owning a piece feels like owning a slice of the artist’s or community’s journey.
In the end, process isn’t just a buzzword or a footnote… it’s the narrative thread that ties everything together. It’s the heartbeat that keeps art alive well after the final brushstroke, line of code, or click of the mint button. And in a space where things move faster than ever, it’s the one thing that keeps us grounded in what truly makes art meaningful: the human story behind it all.
