Star Allies, glaze painting, 10" x 14", 2013
One of the greatest gifts of Steemit has been a rekindling of my love of making stuff. It’s restored my value in myself as an artist and even given me a catalyst to find a more confident voice.
During this past week I’ve been considering and redefining my presence on Steemit as I do periodically. Reflection was in the air because I had several conversations off and on Steemit about reaching for meaning, clarifying intentions, reminding ourselves of what we are doing and why. A good example is @ericvancewalton’s post Sometimes You Just Have to Hit Reset.
There are so many ways that Steemit gives back and does so in spades, but what compels us specifically to return and engage regularly? After all, life is chock full of interesting things to do and loved ones to spend time with!
A side note is that my digital and physical life intersected in a wonderful way this week when @doctorcrypto offered to help in my studio. He’s now playing the role of DoctorTILE and doing the not so glamorous but super helpful task of sanding tiles. Incredibly nice fellow and seems to be doing a good job so far too!
On Friday we were talking about posting on Steemit and I shared my philosophy for successful participation on the platform. The act of articulating it seemed to helped me reconnect with my motivation, clarify what’s most meaningful for me at this point and renew my commitment.
Basically my belief is that in order to succeed here you must keep your interest alive and make the act of creating content essential to you beyond the rewards. To find a way to use Steemit for your own exploration, creativity and growth so that you have an internal motivation to return regularly.
This means creating content that keeps YOU as the creator stimulated, interested, fulfilled. Yes it’s great to create what may be meaningful to others, but if it doesn’t ignite you, it won’t ignite anyone else either. Whereas if it’s useful to you and ignites a bit of passion, play, humor or heart, chances are it will for others too. And of course this leads to those great comments and conversations.
Equally important is to value quality over quantity. Give yourself permission to post only as much as works for you and use the time you have for Steemit intentionally in the ways that are most satisfying. This is really important for me and has helped me when I go through times when I’m spread too thin.
How? glaze painting, 2014, this was an off the cuff experiment to try creating a watercolor effect with painting with glaze and I had a great time
As I reflect personally I keep coming back my need to blog about my work in ways that remind me why I love it, why I chose this career. Writing about my work - if approached right - builds my passion for it, much like a conversation with my sweetie about our relationship can help keep the connection strong, clear and the flame alive.
I’m reframing my criteria for my content creation with the question - does it ignite my passion for creating?
I also realized that I want to do more collaboration here. I’ve done some and have gotten so much out of it but don’t know how to find the time for more of it.
In the hope that some answers will reveal themselves in the coming months,
I’ve formed the intention that I want to
*more effectively fund collaborative ventures so that I can give myself more fully to them
And I’m posing the questions:
- how could I reorganize my work-life to allow for more collaboration on Steemit and with Steemians?
- What would I have to give up in order to do so and is that a loss or a relief?
My artistic growth is really hungry for this, for the more light-hearted playful challenge of sketching more, making smaller pieces, stretching to meet the engagement that collaboration offers! My mouth waters when I upvote @opheliafu, @mayasky and @paolobeneforti’s work (and so many more!) and I want to initiate contests and projects that proactively and effectively support artists….
So, my intentions are set and I welcome solutions!
Thank you for your support, it’s precious and enables my blog and life as an artist!
