Resisting Change

 Paint Party Friday

Art Journal Journey 

Mixed media, painted then collaged with strips of my own paintings. City

Mix it Monthly

 Well apparently our creative muse has returned... Yahoo, and it's so much fun!! Even  Beardo stowaway in his music cave the dining room   to write a song, after months of feeling creatively stagnant.  Apparently the muse loves a dirty messy house... who knew! Unfortunately, the muse and I are NOT on the same page. The little clutter fests are getting to me!! So everything is a trade off! I shall tackle it a bit at a time!

Original Jenny the Jester  acrylic paint!!

We've planted the seeds of change in our minds! It's a slow

 process and we keep sabotaging ourselves. Although we give 

items to charity monthly there is so muchmore we need to release

 to live simpler! The seeds are planted in the direction of change!!

This week Cupcake is quite sick yet she still trudges to 

work poor thing.Beardo and her have tickets for the 

Jeff Bridges concert tonight too!! 

Like I said last week, the world is rapidly changing. How we convey and receive information is so quick.  The younger generations are putting value on  different things than we did. They're cherry picking what worked in the past and leaving the least affective behind! They are scanning through the babyboomers mistakes and trying to navigate a  new way! Clearing out the clutter of our world. Living simpler! They just aren't aspiring to what many of us aspired to!

My generation fell into the trap of being  socialized into the footsteps of our parents. In my case my mother was only one of two working moms in our neighbourhood. With an extremely domestic side mom did everything a stay at home mom did and more, yet rarely showed up to special events or school functions that we took part in.

My generation took it a step further,  volunteering  at schools, attending  all extracurricular activities and functions as well as keeping up the house and working full time! Many such as myself burnt out trying to do it allon very little sleep! Some young people still fall into this trap, but the majority have rethought things. Prioritizing, knowing it's too difficult to be all things to all people, chasing things you don't really want, to please people you don't really like. First question....what do you really want and what do you really love? That works for clearing clutter too!! I never asked myself that question seriously until  well  into my fourties!

 I read all the comments on last weeks post  a few times and think  I need to elaborate a touch more about social media. I'm a big fat hypocrite because although I have had a twitter account from the beginning, I don't tweet!  However it's possible I  write and create art for different reasons than  other artists! Some artists want and need  to generate an income, others want to have art shows, some want online notoriety, others want to build a portfolio, some create art therapeutically. Others create art for personal gratification and expression or self exploration and improvement!  Why do you create art? other than your soul propels you to....

 

If you want to get your art out to the world, outside of doing the foot work  the best way is to build your brand. I know it sounds redundant, but it's the wave of the future! Young people are reserving instagrams and twitter accounts for their babies, knowing it's now the way of the world! Eventually instead of a job interview or a portfolio you may be asked for your instagram account! As it is now, some employers google search your name, check facebook, and anything else they can find on you!! Recently I heard of a case where they asked for a persons credit rating too!

For those  afraid we are sharing too much information do like mother said, keep your nose clean. Don't put anything out there you wouldn't want to defend in person! In other words be boring but don't bore people!! Show your best side. Share things others might enjoy or be interested in. It's also a good way of exploring who you are. I don't think Cupcake realized how much she loves taking food photos until she had an instagram account. When a newspaper posts her food photos which they have done several times because she uses their hash tag on those food photos,  they post her instagram account with it, drawing in more followers.It's exciting when they pick your photo out of thousands! 

Instagram is a much like a pyramid scheme. When a person likes your photo, that photo could go onto the recommended search page of people that follow you! (To put it in simply,  it's as though instagram  is saying "your friend likes these pictures, we think  you may like them too," then they are placed on your suggested search page! Which you can quickly scan to find new artist you might love! Hashtags send your photos to different pages where you may pick up new followers too!

You  need to visit  and like several photos to lead people  back to your instagram account!! The object of the game is to get them to like and follow you! To build it, you need to post at least daily for a while! Too many posts in a short span of time on the same day can  anger people, and they may stop following you! If you post too often they miss out on their other posts that fall to the bottom!

I started instagram  over a year ago but then never posted...I just recently started posting regularly because I am realizing the importance of building my brand, for no reason in particular! Just because! Similar to blogging you may not fully understand why you are doing it, then one day it will be clear why you need your own brand!! This is not flicker, which is like a holding tank for photos!  It's not facebook.  It's a place to connect quickly to lots of like minded souls at once.To show the world who you are and what you love!

Make authentic comments on photos you love, build short communications with those folks you  really admire! I am  following mostly artists.  I am not a huge fan of skulls, I know they are fashionable but  I rarely follow people who post them. It's just not my thing... I find the art inspires me, motivates me, and shows me a little more of who I am! I don't follow people who post food....I don't follow Cupcake or Beardo. I love whimsical artists, some cartoonists, quirky artist, childrens illustrators as well as a few comical artists and comedians.

There are apps and programs where you can pay people to follow you! I don't know much about that yet though! Just focus on building your own brand. Seriously once you get the hang of it, you won't need to spend much time on it! However you can meet some really talented artists that share info you may want or need! 

 Twitter is another animal that gets info to you in 140 characters or less... It's interesting to watch it work.  Anyone and everyone can  communicate anything via twitter. You could have a chance for a publisher to see your work where in the past it could take years to make that happen.  Part of the secret is to get people interested in who and what you are and have to offer! There are more opportunities for those who are savvy on social media. Some people think social media is a time thief when in actuality it can free up time. The days of sitting down to watch the News are coming to an end. By the time you sit down to watch it, that information is outdated!  You can deny it, but this technology, much like computers and tablets is here to stay whether we like it or not! Everything and anything we are interested in is at our fingertips within minutes!

Of course much like those friends who are so out of the loop they continue to send you comical emails that were trending three years ago,  there will always be those to resist the changes!! Some people are old school and refuse to embrace change...and that's okay... trudge merrily along doing your thing!! That works for you and me too! Those of you who are wondering how you can get yourself out there to sell art and make good connections, and maybe be discovered, GET BUILDING!!  Ask yourself, Who am I?? You just never know what offers may appear!! Good luck to all of you whether you build a brand or just toodle along!! There are no guarantees...just hope and belief! Do you resist change?

For more on being a social media marketing as an  influencer....read here!!