From Artist to Content Creator: How Much is too Much?
I fight with this question every day. I started teaching myself art about 3-4 years ago. I remember it was weeks before I had the courage to post anything at all. Looking back at my early art, I wish I had waited much longer.
After about a year or so I half as tried selling art. I say half ass as I just kind of put it out there and did a show here and there to see what it was like. It was in the past year or so I’ve really earnestly started trying to sell, and let me tell you. It’s been a ride.
For one, I don’t sell much at all. Last sales I got were in June. Most of my sales are in the form of t-shirts or other merch items. People, like myself, love art, but don’t always have away or room to hang it. I do however collect weird t-shirts. I’ll buy funky art on a shirt any day.
That brings us to selling on social media. Being an artist on social media feels a lot like being a dancing circus monkey. Even when I first started a couple years, ago I could post a painting and get at least a few dozen likes and a good amount of comments. Now, I’m like to get one or two likes and maybe 20 views out of thousands of followers.
Despite what my brain is trying to tell me, the algorithm suppresses things like art and pretty much anything positive. I supposed if I posted a painting and said “This art sucks!” It may take off. I may try that even.
Now, showing your face helps. Viral triends go around where artists need to be on video showing their process or talking about their day to day. The infamous rotating the painting around clips. I do none of those things. I may be more successful if I did, but I hate looking at my own mug while I’m talking.
My tablet records time lapse videos and I post those. A few times I’ve posted a process video when I was on camera and it did pretty well. So maybe I need to do more. I also do art slideshows and other tricks. The problem is my brain thinks in statick images, and I hardly watch videos, so posting videos rarely occurs to me.
The fact is, it is no longer good enough to just post good art, or even good art with a well thought out caption. You have to be a performer, influencer, videographer and a bunch of other things and just the thought of all this sends my executive dysfunction into a tizzy.
I’m not sure what the solution is, I don’t have one. I just want to encourage new, and experienced artists that your art is beautiful and your audience will find it. The hard part is finding them. This is why I try so hard to be positive and lift up an encourage other artists, because we all need it. Especially in these times.
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