something i’m supposed to be doing.

one of the downsides to attempting to make a living off of being a creative in 2024 is social media engagement and search engine optimization, or seo. it seems that if you don't have a strong online presence, then nobody will ever know who you are. art for art's sake is nice, but the idea that i have to post it on social media and hope to get likes feels like a giant pain in the ass.

a piece that i worked on recently and absolutely loved and felt proud of when i finished it is somehow not considered good if i only get a few likes. i questioned if the value of something i had created was somehow less because i don’t have a gigantic social media following. i think it only got 5 likes. it must suck, right? i should go back to working on computers. i don't believe that, and i doubt that many people who legitimately care about art believe that. but here we are.

plenty of artists ask for my assistance with this exact dilemma. i offer plenty of advice on how to get their name out there into the great digital underworld. but i always feel a little hypocritical when i look at my own presence and engagement on social media and realize that i'm not taking my own advice.

the problem is, i hate pandering. being disingenuous is something i don't allow room for in my life. it's likely the reason that i've been able to work with the artists that i have been able to work with. what you see is what you get.

so how do i direct more people toward my website (that i need to update more often, for that matter)?

content.

i hate that word: content. if there ever was a word to cheapen the concept of art, content would be that word. unfortunately, “content” is what is required to get traffic and views. or a few thousand dollars a month. which again, feels disingenuous. also, i don't have a few extra thousand dollars a month. i have a 2-year-old.

so how do i stomach making more “content”?

when i sat down to start writing “a blog,” i wasn’t sure what i wanted to write about. usually, i would write about a project that i was currently working on. but being in between projects at the moment, i didn’t have anything really interesting to say. again, i don't want to be disingenuous, so just as i was about to shut the lid of my macbook, the idea came to me: talk about how much i hate doing what i have to do in order to keep doing what it is that i love doing.

ok, that's one post. how do i keep the momentum?

i hope to be writing more about projects i'm working on as i'm working on them. that seems like a good way to keep me on task and let people know what i'm working on. i also love writing about music. at one time, i had a pretty popular music blog. maybe i'll do that again. maybe i’ll talk about techniques i use to create the art i create. i’m a big fan of sharing the wealth when it comes to diy.

i guess the sky is the limit. i just don't want to waste my time writing about things i don't feel passionate about. i can go back to selling fire alarms if i didn't care about how i spent my time to make a living.