Why a blog? Why any of this? Part2
Part 2 of why I've chosen to start a blog and why it could be a good idea for me, and maybe others
Click here for part 1
following on from part 1
A blog allows a deeper level of sharing
2) Sharing
I love reading other people's blogs and watching videos, talks etc.
Not just painting related, but anything revolving around art and creativity, nature, science, business and much more. Basically anyone sharing something interesting, and doing it for the love of it, because they are passionate about it.
It's inspiring and makes me want to keep doing what I am doing.
It's fuel for the fire and there's a whole load of information at your fingertips. Information that might have taken weeks, months or years to accumulate purely on your own.
Putting ideas out there to be built upon or challenged is a great way to move forward.
As a person and with what you do, and how you do it. It could also help others to move forward and progress themselves; and so everyone begins to share and feed off one another.
Just one person taking one small thing from something I have shared would be great..!
How do I know this?
Because I've been a person who has read or heard something that really struck a chord!
Something that resonated deeply with me and altered they way I think.
Something that gave me a new insight or simply inspired me to keep going at a time when In was struggling to do exactly that.
I know how much I have learnt and benefited from others sharing.
So who am I to not share what I know?
To hold back on something that could inspire and enable someone else....
Which brings me neatly onto my final reason for writing a blog.
3) Paying it forward
It would surprising to find anyone out there, whether they would like to admit it or not, who has got to where they are if it wasn't for those who had come before them and pathed the way.
I owe a huge amount to many people who have shared what they know with the world and to many who have shared with me directly.
Those who have passed on their painting and creative knowledge, their inspiration, their time, their business knowledge, their wisdom, their friendship, their experiences....all of which without, I wouldn't be where I am now.
More specifically in relation to this topic of blogs and sharing online, there are artists who I have followed online for many years.
People I believe if I had not followed in this way, I would not have made the big step to follow my dream of being an artist (Or it would have come a lot later in my life)
I would have never even considered it was possible. Just something for the chosen few...
...But through their sharing they showed that not only is it possible to make a living as an artist, it is possible to make a good living, and more importantly possible to create a good life. (please see links below for links to these people)
I still follow these people now, 12 or so years further on; looking to them for inspiration, advice and guidance in the art world and life in general.
I am hugely grateful for all of the above:
I could say thank you to these people until I am blue in the face.
I could show how grateful I am until I pass out from exhaustion;
but actually the best thing I can do is simply Pay it Forward.
Pass On all I know and have learnt and do so openly, in the hope that it be useful to others and that they might take it, however small 'it' is, and run with it in their own direction, paying it forward and passing it on as they go.
So why write a blog?
As a marketing tool
To share information I hope will benefit others
To share ideas about creativity & learning
To share ideas about making a living as an artist and art business
To share my mistakes so that others can learn from them, or maybe just make exactly the same ones but know that others have done so...and that it's O.K.
And not forgetting.....sharing my paintings and the stories behind them
I don't know exactly what the end result of writing a blog will be.
I do know I have started one, and I do know what my intentions are.
Interesting Links and Resources
DrewBrophy.com - Inspiring Artist, business and liefstyle figure
MariaBrophy.com - Art Business Consultant, inspiring and very useful articles
TrevorWaugh.com - My teacher and mentor
ArtBizCoach.com - Another Fantastic Resource for Art Business