Howdy,
I am here at the end of the first quarter of the year figuring out what and where I want to do next. I get a little overwhelmed but not by the art itself but by the marketing. Some advice is that what I'm doing right here, right now, talking to you as if we know each other is a marketing sin! If I'm not “adding value” to your life then it's some how useless. To be honest I'm willing for it to be. Another train of thought is that I'm building a connection to you by opening part of my life up so that you can see yourself, find yourself and hopefully inspire yourself as I share what's happening in my creative life. I'm not sure what the “right” way is but when I'm unsure I always think that honesty is the best place to start.
For years art has always straddled this weird space between hobby and small business but this year I decided to really embrace the business aspect of it. I've set up a youtube channel, I'm way more consisent on my instagram and I upload regularly to my online store. There's still so much I am figuring out, like how to ship my bigger paintings and how to reach more people who might like my work. There's definitely more business happening right now and I kind of forgot how hard it is in the first year or so. I sometimes do slip back into “hobby” mode but keeping myself accountable has definitely helped. Also, I know my audience is tiny, but, for those of you who have reached out to show me some support I want you to know that I appreciate you and of course THANK YOU!
I think for the second quarter of the year I want to reach out more to other artists. I want to connect more and feel more like I am a part of a community. When I was making music I always found the lack of commradery really disheartening. I never understood the idea that helping someone else takes away from you. I still don't understand it, although these days I have more appropriate boundaries in place so that my helping others is not taken advantage of. One of my personal goals this year was to create and be open to more friendships and that I guess extends to community as a principle. Maybe I thought I was looking for more people to have coffee and adventures with but maybe I'm also looking for people to connect with creatively. I'll keep exploring, I'll keep learning and most importantly I will hold to the promise I made to myself which was to keep showing up for a full year to see what shakes loose from the universe!
Hope you're doing great!
Onward,
Big love,
Ryan x
www.ryanjamesartist.com