Hello! Thank you for reading the inaugural post of my brand spanking new blog. Enjoy looking around at all the blank spaces just waiting to be filled with awesomeness.
Things will get more interesting as the posts go on, I swear. But I can’t just jump straight into all this amazing and meaningful content without some prefacing. Well, I could, I suppose. But I haven’t yet written all that amazing and meaningful content yet… And I do feel like some background and explanation is in order.
What’s This Blog All About?
For some time now, I’ve wanted to be an artist. I’ve jumped all over the place when it comes what exact kind of artist I’ve wanted to be, but there’s always been a deep need to express myself creatively. Unfortunately, that deep need has been accompanied by an ever deeper trench of insecurities, fears, and assorted hang-ups.
So, in a nutshell, this blog is about my adventure of becoming an artist. It’s a way for me to track my progress, hold myself accountable, and maybe even someday make a few extra dollars to help pay for art supplies (and therapy).
There’ll be some introductory “blogging about this blog and why I’m blogging” kinds of posts, but I’ll get to the meaty arty stuff soon enough. Of course, all that introspective crap will continue, as that’s kinda the point of this thing. But I promise this won’t be a diary.
I tend to wait until everything is perfect before starting, which means I do a lot of planning and not a lot of starting, and very, very little finishing. So I’m just going to jump in and learn as I go this time. With people watching. Very scary.
This blog will be the place where I get to share this artsy part of my life that doesn’t really have anywhere else to go. I’ll get to share the projects I make, the artists who inspire me, and the inner demons I battle along the way.
Why Now?
The last year has been a tough one for me. Two of the most important people in my life decided they were better off without me, my best friend moved a thousand miles away, and my beloved cat of 16 years died. So I decided that it’s time for me to live my own life, get over all this crap that’s been weighing me down, and learn how to make myself happy. Making my long-time art dream happen is part of that plan.
Why Make It Public?
As I mentioned before, one of the reasons for this blog is accountability. It scares me to death to put myself out there like this, but it’s the only way I can think of to force myself to keep going. Internal motivation isn’t really my thing, so I need to know that some invisible, probably imaginary “public” out there is expecting me to keep going.
I’ve tried just keeping track for myself, and apparently I don’t value my own opinion enough to stick with it. Another thing to work on!
What Kind of Art?
Excellent question! I’m so glad you asked. How about we figure that out together? I have some ideas, but we’ll see where things go. The categories up top will give you some idea of where I’m starting.
This blog is an evolving work in progress as I learn the intricacies of blogging, fiddle with the WordPress platform, test out social media marketing, and figure out the direction I want the blog to go. This website will have glitches, gaps, and ugly bits, embarrassing failures and unexplained phenomena, and there will be many tweaks to make along the way. Please be patient, as it’s just a baby and has a lot of learning and growing to do.
If you have any feedback for improving this site or anything else, I’d love to hear it, either in the comments or more privately.
I’ll start out posting once a week, and see how that goes. This isn’t my full-time job. I don’t have a spouse or a vast store of wealth to support me while I try out a working-from-home thing. I do have a mortgage and a full-time job that I love and a crushing amount of student loans and a burning desire to try to become an artist before I’m too decrepit to hold a brush. So here I am.
Thank you for being here with me.
P.S. If you’re the kind of person who can’t tear your eyes away from a horrible train wreck, I suggest you subscribe (see below) so you don’t miss a single gory detail. =)
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