Navigating a landscape, it’s okay to ask for directions.
Social Media 101 – This is an update to the article, So much to learn, so little time. I’ve learned much about the social media landscape and the hills and valleys of finding and marketing to potential clients. One thing for sure, it takes a time, lots of time.
If you expect to sell your product or service through strictly free social media, realize it will be a long road, with many highs and lows. One thing great about it, you learn so much by trying, experimenting, by failing and experimenting again.
I now realize how important it is to learn from others who have taken the path and discover some proven shortcuts. You have a finite amount of time and content and if you don’t learn how others have made it, you will spend much time learning and less time reaping the benefits.
So learn from others who have lots of followers that are attracting the same audience you seek. Ask lots of questions, take classes that have been valuable to others in your field and learn from the vast amount of experience at your finger tips.
Tomorrow’s post: A changing Landscape but still the same landscape
Metaphor of a garden- the fritillary, the hummingbird and the dragonfly: What instills peace in the creative soul. It seems it is simpler and more complex than perhaps the outside person looking in can fathom. It is not necessarily the state nor the actual meaning of an event, it is more the feeling and that moment when for some strange reason things make sense, even if for just a moment.
Let’s start off with a garden, a garden that has been a metaphor for many things in this creatives’ life. Perhaps it’s the helplessness and neediness of this particular years crop that has inspired my introspection.
We got more water than we have this year, having gotten out of a major drought, what’s new in the state of Texas. Unfortunately I think my plants have gotten spoiled as they seem more needy than they have in past years. I have always bragged that the kind of plants that I have chosen don’t need me to tend them at all, they grow, they react to the heat and they recover.
This year, the recovery has been more labored, even losing many of my prized plants that at one time in my manic state of building the perfect garden seemed to be such an important aspect and draw of my attention. Now they wither, they scream at the surface, begging for the gardener to be the gardener he professed to be.
It’s not unlike raising kids, these days my irrelevance seems to be eating me alive due to my sons metamorphosis to a full fledged teen rearing to be anywhere but with me. Luckily having raised what I profess to be a pretty special kid I have gotten to enjoy wonderful blooms of his youthful colors without him insisting I leave him alone. We watched two movies last night and again, the simplicity and perfection of that special time is just what this post is all about. Luckily I keep enough water in the house and he even carries a jug around so my lack of care and attention would never be noticed quite like the garden that screams when it has been neglected.
Being a parent, we either neglect our children or we neglect ourselves and our own identity, in this instance I think I’m the one that is shriveling up from lack of attention. I feel the garden is screaming out the state of how I feel, thirsty and missing something. The yellow leaves, the parched broken earth all seem to be signs of a lack of nourishment.
My creativity, my writing has always been my nourishment so during points of block I appear to be starving, withering in the oppressive summer of this life. Now, don’t take this like I am whining, I am the lucky one, I am so blessed but I am missing something, that solitude, the introspection seems to be what I need and nature is always the catalyst for my healing.
This point of my life seems to be the point of harvest. The fruits of seventeen years of labor are coming to be more amazing than I could ever even have imagined. Now there is sadness in this beauty of success, just like the emotion you feel at a graduation or a wedding-it is the beginning of a new point in our lives that is wonderful and exciting as it is sad and a bit emotional. So what to do with this creative? I know a new life is on the horizon, just like the seeds that are already in the ground ready for next spring, I am excited but being creative we feel everything with equal measure.
This is my first review, it is of a photographer that really inspires me, she is what I would consider true inspiration. I would call her a portrait photographer but I have seen many different aspects of her work and would hesitate limiting her to that title. The photographer I am describing is Christine Lebrasseur, a very talented photographer who lives in France.
Christines’ photography is beautiful and skillfully executed. Her work allows light to truly be the medium, much like a painter would use a paintbrush. She welcomes the viewer in for a moment with her subject and allows her subjects a voice, they truly speak. You don’t admire her subjects for their polished or beautiful appearances, in fact there is often a textured, high contrasting grit to her images that is a welcome break from the airbrushed subjects of todays’ culture. She shows you who the people are, bumps and blemishes seem more beautiful than ugly because they are real.
One of the best descriptions I would give them is that they are intimate studies of real people that compel the viewer to know more. Her isolated aspects of her subjects give you hints to just what you need to know, nothing more or less and that’s what allows your need for further study. The eyes of her subjects stare into you and don’t let you turn away, they shout to be noticed and you are compelled to notice them. There is nothing contrived about the lighting or the composition, there is no second guessing from the viewer, each piece is a complete vignette that includes everything the viewer desires to see. She doesn’t allow you that comfortable feeling of being a spectator instead you are involved in the image and both viewer and subject seem to invade each others’ comfort zone.
Drama is created by contrast and juxtaposition and the tools she uses support the integrity of the characters she captures. The viewer is motivated to ask questions and the intimacy between her subjects and the viewer is complex like a good wine, something that keeps giving instead of just blurting out the prize, her images grow and change as the viewer rediscovers them with every viewing. Her work sheds the skin of the perfection we tend to deem beautiful and shows you that the dimples and imperfections are what builds character in the face of people. We are compelled to see people deeper than just the surface and that’s a wonderful humanistic skill we can take away from her work.
Besides her black and white portraits and her studies of people, there are also colored images and abstract images and the amazing thing about them, they don’t leave the viewer questioning why she captured them but instead compels the viewer to look at everyday things with more interest and discovery. Her work inspired my previous post and have actually reignited my passion and drive to capture what we see everyday as true inspiration and that’s a gift to any artist or creative.https://plus.google.com/103667447824502944926/posts?cfem=1https://plus.google.com/103667447824502944926/posts?cfem=1
My First Creative Blog – How do you start blogging about art? How do you explain a process that you have been so involved with for so many years it feels like second nature. I would venture to guess that you would blog about the change from conventional art, painting and pastels to the
Creation of art through the computer and the marketing of art through the internet. I recently launched my website, www.artbygordon.com, something I had been talking about for many years and I was so happy to finally complete a task-I tend to procrastinate and I have so many different ideas for writing, poetry, art and photography, half the time I write them down and they never get completed. Starting to blog was something that has been on my list for a long time as well.
So the process starts with a website that is by all counts awkard-inconsistencies in fonts, Lack of search engine keywords which is just as well for now as Iam trying to clean up the site and perfect the appearance before I start spreading the word. I have learned more in the last few days of working with the HTML code and editing the Meta tags and it seems every time I think I get the idea I learn something else. I don’t believe you spread theword or market artwork by just spreading it to friends, I believe it’s a start as word of mouth is important but how do you spread the site to people that want to buy art or even learn more about you as an artist. I have learned that launching the site is such a small step in marketing and the information I am picking up will be instrumental in how I market and show my artwork. Some ideas on the horizon are an interactive gallery, a poetry blog and a photography page and I know that when doing all of these processes I will learn more from the process itself.
I have been on a bit of a break from painting which I think makes it a good time to market what I have already created but more than selling art and marketing the art is learning about the process of marketing. I will venture more into the social media aspect and actually learn more about the people that would want to buy art. I will, in the near future, have an art show whether it be online or at a festival and I will blog and tweet and post with the idea of seeing where I get the most interest. I tought myself to paint and believe that is how I learn the best. Doing web marketing is just another growth process
And over the next few months I will describe the options I’ve learned about social media, Google tools and the process of what I hope will eventually be effective self marketing of my painting, photography and writing. I am excited about the prospect and hope to gain followers with interest. I guess we’ll just have to see.
Artbygordon: Original oils on canvas, Original pastels on paper celebrating the beauty and mystery of nature. Water and night skies are my specialties.
