My last post was a year ago this month and it is incredible to me that it has gone by so quickly. The world seems turned on its ear and the turmoil and sheer craziness of it all is something I have never witnessed. Just wow!
So what was up the last twelve months? In all honesty, I think I was tired of doing this blog and just not seeing anyone that was much interested in it so I turned to Instagram (IG) for a while. I posted pictures and followed a lot of people that were inspirational and extremely talented in their creative endeavors and I actually garnered a bit of a following myself along the way. I guess I was hoping to absorb some creative mojo by virtual osmosis and learn some new things along the way on it.
What I learned instead is that the creative life is best lived by just creating and not concentrating on garnering an audience. Before IG my inspiration had a wealth of ideas and a solid foundation of trusting in myself about those ideas. I had two pieces stitched and framed and was working on the third and thought I would just post updates about its progress. But as I scrolled through all the various people's postings I followed I found myself thinking about posting other things that would be comparable like studio pictures, pictures of myself, our wild rabbit photos and just really a lot of useless garbage that didn't really pertain to the work itself. I wasted hours and hours scrolling through feeds and watching videos that in the end did nothing to expand or enhance my work. That time should have been spent on working on my creativity instead.
IG is a wonderful place with a lot of positive and amazing things going on, but it is very easy to lose yourself in it. Like a maze you go deeper and deeper into and get further and further from your final destination and even where you started. It is a great place if you are just trying to garner followers and not care who they are and how pertinent they are to your interests and advancing them. There are no real friendships and "likes" are only indicative that they saw, or more accurately, glanced at your photo. As for reading your caption, that will only be done be a very few of those that "liked" it. Comments are non-existent so valuable feedback you should be getting is a big fat zero.
I became a cheerleader for so many others whose work I truly enjoyed and admired, but after a while that got pretty tiresome too. Some people would acknowledge the comments and many others didn't. It was a crapshoot at best and real relationships with fellow artists cannot be built on that or any of the things you hope will happen but never does.
I canceled my account and it is sad to leave my barely over a hundred followers that sometimes would drop a "like" and rarely ever a comment, but not really. They will probably not even notice I am gone and that is okay, I don't really expect them to, and why should they in the first place. I may go back someday after I have completed a larger body of work and use what I learned from this experience. IG is not a magic bullet for gaining success or visibility. It is a place you can direct people to look at your work without all the trappings of a blog or website. If people find you and follow you, and if you have the desire to follow others without feeling obligated to do so, then it can be a rewarding experience. It is too large to really grow a group of like minded buddies with whom you can exchange ideas and cultivate close professional relationships. Those are better served by small Facebook groups, professional organizations, and societies you can join.
So this is my take away from my IG experience. Use it as a photo viewing platform you can utilize for people interested in seeing your work. Do not worry about "likes" or followers, those are irrelevant to what you are doing, which is making and enjoying your own art. Getting lost down a rabbit hole of overwhelming unimportant information is not going to do either.
Until next time, Keep Creating!
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