Moose + Drizzle, A Painting I Forgot to Share, & Thoughts About Social Media

 This past week's creation was a digital illustration based off of two separate 'tober art challenge prompts (moose and drizzle). The challenge prompt part is not really of any consequence because I haven't kept up with any of them. But it did result in an illustration I am rather pleased with.

Also, I realized I forgot to share this painting I did of my cat, Abed, either here or on Instagram or anywhere. 

Again, quite pleased with it, but I also look at it and think, ehhhh, I could have done better. The tail, though! I love the way the tail turned out. 

At some point during the week I had the brilliant idea to look through some older work of mine and it was a largely positive experience. Having some distance from one's work (via the passage of time) almost always (for me, anyway) results in a kinder eye toward it. I found myself saying, "hey, that's pretty good" over and over in looking at it and it also resulted in a fresh jolt of inspiration to keep it up.

Now, to return to the topic of social media again: some of what I don't like about social media (specifically in terms of using it the way I've been trying to use it, as an art-sharing/marketing account) is the feeling of obligation surrounding it. It became increasingly obvious to me over the years that social media companies were very extractive and demanding (though that part of it is not obvious). I have never been interested in following trends and I've never felt great about making sure I was being "consistent" with my posting (and no matter what anyone says, to me it feels like consistent=prolific). I have been thinking about this blog and how it feels more like a place of my own, subject to my own needs and guidelines, and so I want to develop it more and devote more of my energy to it, as opposed to Instagram, which is where all my art-sharing energy used to go. If the internet is a river, my blog is like a calm little inlet while Instagram is right in the thick of the main flow. But, being right in the thick of that flow, it can be useful in directing people toward my little inlet (hopefully, the type of people who would enjoy being here!). So, I don't want to abandon it completely. 

The thought of writing a weekly blog post and coming up with however many posts or reels per week feels overwhelming and the biggest internal response I get to that idea is UGH. But, it just occurred to me (like, today) that I could make Friday my posting day for not only this blog, but also Instagram. That there's no law that says I have to have different content for both places. Once a week is something which is more than the nothing I've been doing there. And putting it on the same day makes it less overwhelming. It gives me a way to keep my toes dipped into the social media way of sharing my art, while still giving me the space to explore other avenues to see how well they fit and how beneficial they are. So, I'll be doing that, probably, but like I said, I just thought of it today, so I reserve the right to abandon this system.

Here's my Ordinary Beauty photo for the week:

what does the tree see?