May 3 Observation

While organizing my photos I came across these two: one taken of the late winter echinacea stems in my yard, and one a detail of a sketch I was working on in the studio. I was not intentionally responding to the photo I took in the yard in this sketch, but this does make it clear to me that what I consume outside of the studio is reflected back at me in my work.

Lately I’ve been taking a break from social media. I deleted Tik Tok from my phone and I’ve just not been interested in engaging with Instagram, because real life interactions have been fulfilling and I haven’t wanted to dilute any of that.

As an artist, Instagram takes a lot of time away from the work I could be doing in the studio. And I end up caring way too much about likes and comments (or the lack of them) so much so that I can tell that it influences the way I post, and to some degree probably the way I think and work in the studio. Yet I don’t feel like I can delete my Instagram account because it can be a great tool for connecting with others and for getting my work out there. So I’m going to try turning off likes on my posts, but leaving them open for comment so exchange can still happen. If that doesn’t help, I might stop using Instagram entirely, and move over to Substack (or just keep writing here).