Social Media Dance Painting

When I started painting after leaving college in 1999 the world of technology was a very different place. I remember the Internet was around at college but students had to go to the library to access it and it was still very early days. There wasn’t any instruction really how to use it either and everyone was in the same boat.

My Take on Social Media

It was exactly the same when social media arrived, no idea of what it could do or how to get on with it until slowly tips were being revealed and people started to get a lot of followers, then the game and rules of engagement unfolded.

View Social Media Dance painting in detail

The Upside of Social Media

It is fun and quite exciting, all of my fellow artist friends joined and it felt like a community coming together. I am amazed to see who is out there in the world, like minded artists, brilliant artists that inspire me. I have also discovered new people online who have bought my paintings but who I have never met. It can be so rewarding to have comments from complete strangers that help me along the way.

Slipping down and feeding the monster

After a while it would be natural to think, hey this is great - wahoo lots of people love what I do and I have this many followers but how can I have more? Doubt can creep in… it’s not going so well as I thought, I am not posting enough, other people’s feeds look so much more sophisticated and so on or in short I can’t be bothered with it all and what is the point?

In the depths being online 

Checking  phones for updates to see any new likes or comments is so common place now and is part of the social media game. I have heard from artist friends that they are trying not to look at their phones for longer periods of time, screen time is up too high.

One weird story I remember was, reading about a woman in the US who woke up to check her phone  two or three times in the middle of the night just so she could post to her followers on Twitter. Reassuringly the reverse is the case too. I have a good friend who has become fed up with the whole social media game and has left the account for over a year without doing a thing and it is still very slowly progressing with followers much to his amusement.

My take on it all? To not take it too seriously and have fun, I will continue feeding the monster but have it on a strict diet!

I will be exhibiting Social Media dance at the Brighton Open House in May 2020. Sign up to my newsletter for more details.