Last Video of the Year! Recital and Recap of 2023 (Patreon)

In this video I do little (sort of) guitar recital, paint my inner landscape painting and recap the significant things that happened regarding my art life this year. 

This was a pretty positive year for me and my art. 

The most significant things were:

Going Viral in early 2023.

 I'm actually embarrassed by this one to be completely honest.  I'm embarrassed by the amount of space social media takes up in my life. I don't like social media. I consider it a lucky break. 

My ultimate goal with this Patreon and with the Sort of Choir email list is to build a platform for myself where I don't have to use social media. At all. Where I have enough people that I don't need it to promote my art. 

I don't need 100,000 people on here. If I can get 1 percent on here, that would be amazing. If I could get 10 percent, I'd be more than set. It still seems like a long shot. But people spend 3 dollars on other useless things so I don't see why I can't do it too. 

I always assumed that once you crack the code of going viral and getting followers, that everything just falls into place. You get sales, you get fans of your work, all that. It seems that way for a little bit. But it's nothing really.

Going viral won't change your life, it won't get you more sales, you'll get a lot of nice messages from nice people, and you'll also get a lot of negativity. 

If you're someone who likes to engage with people online, if you read and respond to comments, if your someone who fights back in comments when people say mean things to you or about you, going viral will ruin your life. If I went viral 10 years ago, my whole year would have been me fighting with people online.

The main good that came from this was that I started the Patreon. 

having a lot of followers did make it seem feasible to start a patreon and start the process of getting people to this platform and on to my email list. 

The Choir, this patreon, is the most significant thing I did this year. I spent most of my time making stuff for it. And I love making stuff for it.

My favorite videos I made for the choir are the Intro to Drawing Bad Art Course and the Art Life and Lives series. 

The next most significant thing I did was become a resident at the Hive Gallery.

My friend Brenda offered a space to me and I'm so glad I took it.

I've barely sold any art there, but that is not the point of the space to me. Of course I want to sell art there. 

But the main purpose of the space is to show my work to real people in real life rather than just sharing it online and letting it sit in my closet. 

The other main good of the space is that it gets me out of my room and into a space with other artists who are in the same boat as me. Hanging out with friends, talking shop and sharing ideas.

I always feel excited about art and life after I leave that place.

The most significant thing that I did for own art, personally, was become a student of another artist who's been doing it for a lot longer.

While I was setting up my patreon I was looking at other artist's Patreon pages for ideas. I was looking at Chet Zar's page. I've been a fan of his work for a while, he's been an influence on my painting. I've looked at him as a model. He makes dark art like I do and he makes a living out of it. 

His highest tier on his Patreon is the mentorship tier. I started thinking about other artists who influence me. Old artists. Old Masters. Rembrandt, Goya, those types of artists. Would I pay the price to talk to them if they were alive and had a Patreon? It was a no brainer. Of course.

Chet would hate that I'm even making that comparison, but that's how I saw it. So I did it. 

Having an artist who's been doing it longer, who's been through the same trials and errors before, and can bring a point of view of experience to your work, is a super valuable thing. 

I think it might end up be the most important thing I've ever done for my art. 

Looking forward to growing and evolving the Choir next year. Making more art.  I hope you are too.

Happy December 30th Everybody

Today I went to FedEx  to scan my inner landscape painting. 

It's larger than my usual scanner can handle. 

I'm not going to varnish it yet because if this huge cave painting doesn't work out and I can't finish it in time for the show next month, I will use this painting as my piece for it. 

And if I have to do that, I want to be able to make changes if I want to before then. 

Tonight I'm going to take reference photos with my friend for some different painting ideas I have. 

I've never done a shoot like this before. I'm excited. 

I'm finally weaning myself off the amount of sugar I've been eating for the past week and a half. 

Whenever I hear or write the word "weaning" I remember that my grandpa once told me that Stanley Kubrick was weaned to early because he didn't like his films.

I'm looking at my room. Little messes everywhere. Paints, buckets of dirty paint water, little tables set up with various little projects on them, clay and foil and wire, guitar music sitting on every surface.

It feels stressful and exciting at the same time. 

Have Fun,

Goodnight

Sweeties