Currently, I am working on posting more to the journal/ blog section of our website. I am calling this my online journal. 

The problem with social media for artists

Lately, there's been a lot of talk about social media and Instagram and sharing online. Is it dead and what are we going to do next? Where are we going to go next as artists and creative businesses that share online? Carson Ellis wrote a lovely comic about it here. Kristen Drozdowski quit instagram last year and wrote about her experience since quitting here. Some interesting food for thought.

Coinciding with these social media issues, I've also developed more of interest in writing and journaling. I like to share as an artist, but I don't feel like I've been able to share adequately on the social media channels that I've been sharing from. 

They are all short form type media, where you post a photo or video and a blurb and allow the viewer to move on to see the next thing. It's a lot. It's all fast and loud and very noisy with tons of other artists and tons of other people out there vying for the same attention. It doesn’t really feel good.

Alternative places I’ll be sharing online

I’m really enjoying reading people's blog posts and substacks lately. I’m wanting to do something similar myself. 

Last year I played with this idea. My intention was to create a substack newsletter and/or blog and also post more in the blog/journal section of my website. Though I did do a little bit better sharing some things in my journal/blog, the substack newsletter fell by the wayside quickly. So here I am a year later trying again.

I think the reason this didn't work well last year is because I was focused more on what I should be writing on my blog for other people, rather than what I was really interested in writing.

Call me a bad business person, but I can't be bothered to make content or write about things that aren't interesting or inspiring to me, because I think that's what I should be writing about. Nothing kills creativity more. 

So it’s time for a journal and newsletter reset!

Here are the reasons I am creating an online journal for my creative business:

1. I am slowly moving away from sharing mainly on other social media sites. I want to share in a space of my own. My own website.
2. I love this concept I've came across online - digital world building. It talks about artists, online entrepreneurs and creatives sharing and documenting your process, interests, inspirations, creative thoughts in your own world, which is your website. 
3. Documenting your process is a great way to record and work through your art. Also I love to go back through a journal and visually see what I’ve been working and thinking on.
4. Letting things flow through you and releasing them out in the world  is a great way to process your work.
5. It’s a means of connection with like-minded people and a way of sharing what you’ve learned. Passing it on.
6. I’m interested in including writing more in my creative practice. Both journalist writing for things that are just fun or interesting to me and artistic writing in my work as means of self expression. Writing in the journal gives me an outlet to test these types of writing.
7. Currently I'm working on trying to find my own voice in my writing and I believe the more I write and the more I share, the closer I will come to working out what that is.
8. Really trying to figure out what I think about things. Working it all out in the writing. My hopes is that in writing, I will get deeper with my thoughts and opinions. 

So if you're interested in art process, creativity, entrepreneurship and some lifestyle things, please continue to keep an eye on this space. I’ll post here in our online journal on the website and then my plan is to share a collection of what I've been writing about in the email newsletter on substack.

---

As always, thanks for being here,

Pauline Stanley
Founder/Designer
therarebirdco.com