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r/delusionalartists — the lore, decoded

Where artists are confident and the market is completely, thoroughly not

The subreddit documents 13 years of artists pricing their work like masterpieces when the market disagrees. It started in 2013 with a $180 Justin Bieber portrait and grew to 166k authors posting 36k pieces and 632k comments. The community developed a signature vocabulary of gentle rejection: I kinda like it, would buy it, this painting, each a diplomatic way of saying no. As the sub matured, posts evolved from notebook sketches and sculpture to NFTs and AI art, but the core formula stayed constant. The greatest hits span from $1500 digital blobs to $89.99 avatars, each demolished with patient precision.

Signature lore of r/delusionalartists

Key moments