July was the month of driving, and I don’t mean that lightly. I haven’t added it up but I clocked something in the neighborhood of 3,000 miles on my car between July 7 and 31. It was part vacation, visiting family, bringing family to our house in IL, taking them home, and visiting more family along the way. It was kind of insane to do that but I hadn’t seen my parents since the end of 2019, so I was making up for lost miles, so to speak. Exhausting but so very worthwhile and a vacation I will not forget.
Despite not being anywhere near my studio the last month, it has also been a great time for people buying my paintings! Honestly, it always makes me very happy to have a painting go to a new home. Interestingly, two of them are paintings I’ve had in my studio for quite a few years, one from a couple of years ago, and only one of them was recently completed. People had remembered seeing the artwork on social media or in a show and asked if they were still available. Also, people from different parts of the country! To all of you who purchased work (and one still pending), thank you! Thank you so very much! Knowing my work moves you enough to have you want it in your daily lives is such a big part of why I love to paint.
Social media vacation update: I have not logged on to facebook or instagram since the start of summer, except after being fooled by fb sending me emails suggesting someone had posted something I needed to see. They hadn’t. Rather, the person posted something but it had nothing to do with me. Clever triggering of curiosity by fb marketing, or whoever is responsible for retention of accounts. Instagram leaves me alone.
It has been an eye-opening experience, this break, as it is the first longer term distance I’ve kept from it all since opening my accounts in 2008/2012. That’s a long time to have that level of connectedness and entertainment at my fingertips. Fortunately, I remember life without it and wanted to try to go back to that for a while.
A few observations (not for everyone, just me):
- My brain is so much happier with no scrolling news feeds, even if I love seeing other people’s artwork, photos, and posts in general. My mind needs the space.
- Social media is not unlike any other addiction, if you let it become that, which, like most addictions is insidious and not something you intentionally set out to overtake parts of your everyday life.
- I miss being connected in this way to some of my favorite people – the thing that has always been a huge part of the draw I felt toward these platforms. I have some seriously funny, brilliant, encouraging friends, and that has been an easy way to sort of be in their everyday lives. This is a tough one.
- Posting my artwork. Not a small portion of sales over the years have come from social media. I have met wonderful people who have bought my work, commissioned it, and referred their friends to check out my facebook and instagram pages. Engaging in this way has been important to me and my art business. I am considering a business page only, or how to make it work as-is, just with different parameters.
- I have been feeling for a while like I am – we all are – ready for something different. I don’t know what I mean by that exactly, other than those words ring true.
Another few months of absence of it all might solidify my thoughts more. We’ll see. Meanwhile, my latest backyard garden harvest…
Happy Summer and happy travels to all of you getting one more vacation in before it ends!
Sign up for my Fall 1 Mixed Media class (starts September 14) at OPAL here, or my Farmers Market Workshop (September 18, 10am – 2pm) here. XO
