A Burden Is Lifted from My Shoulders

I’ve been doing a lot of introspection the last month on how I want to proceed as an artist and budding writer. I’m redefining my definition of fulfillment as an artist. No longer will I be gauging my success by the amount of interaction on social media. This line of thinking has hindered my creative output and pure enjoyment of drawing for the last couple of years. Exhaustion, limited time, and pressure to constantly create content for social media has all combined to make me dread the creative process.

The Consumer Cycle

Consumer culture leads to mindless scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. I’m guilty of this myself, for sure. I consume one piece of content and quickly move on to the next piece. I’m going to do better by striving to connect with the content I’m consuming instead of just using it as a time sink that accomplishes nothing for me.

Any other creative can tell you that to stay relevant on social media, you need to post daily. You gotta outfox the algorithm! For some artists that comes easy and I envy being able to churn out content daily. I get really introspective with work I genuinely care about. I’m simply cheating myself when I scribble something quick onto paper and hit ‘post’. Of course, I enjoy that rush of dopamine from getting likes, comments, or shares. But it’s temporary, and doesn’t really benefit any other aspect of my day but to make me feel good for 30 seconds.

Creating Art for Art’s Sake

Why should I bother stressing about producing something daily to remain relevant on a social media site? Especially if that stress only pays off in the amount of a quick dopamine hit? I’ve been so worried about being successful on social media, it’s hampered my enjoyment of drawing for fun.

As a teen I would stay up until the wee hours on Friday nights, drawing and listening to the radio at my Granny’s house. Just drawing page after page, not worrying about what someone else thought of my sketches. I don’t want to stress and worry while I sketch, “is this even worth posting?”, “am I drawing this just to post something?!” I’m searching for that sense of accomplishment and contentment in knowing I created something that I’m truly proud of and devoted the time into. Something that will have a greater impact on myself and those around me (aka, writing and illustrating children’s books.)

I’m Moving Away From Social Media

I’ll still using social media, but I’m not viewing it as my only way of measuring success as an artist. Once I realized I was going by this metric of success, a weight was lifted from my shoulders. I had just found the source of my dissatisfaction with my art the last few years. Now I feel more excited about art. If I could throw in a fun metaphor for myth nerds, I feel like Fenrir breaking free of his chains at Ragnarok! _{(I’m sorry I had to do it, forgive me).} My artistic output is absolutely affected by my old mindset. I am going to change that this year.

I’m Focusing On Quality Over Quantity

You may be asking, don’t artists need social media in this age? Yes, it’s a great tool. Not to mention free for the most part, let’s not get into the rabbit hole of selling your personal data, though. It’s one of the biggest ways to connect with fans and fellow artists. Not to mention a good place to find inspiration and art challenges to participate in. So yes, I’ll keep my presence on social media, but I’m putting most of my energy into my website, children’s book project, and drawing for sheer enjoyment.

Limited Spare Time

My recent transformation into Motherhood has reformed my value of time. I’ve been forced to consider how I want to devote my time and what’s most important to me. I no longer want to stress so much about being relevant on social media. Its not helping me to maximize my free time. I still want to draw and create, I just don’t have the luxury of disappearing into my studio for hours anymore.

I don’t have the time to produce something I consider ‘quality’ daily. Stressing about having to produce something to be quickly consumed for the next day is exhausting. Plus, it takes away precious mental and physical energy from creative projects I truly love and care about…my website, blog, and my children’s book I’m working on.

Trying to maintain a presence to game the algorithm is exhausting. On the two most popular social media sites there is no chronological order to posts…so to stay relevant on people’s feeds you need to post almost daily. This forces a habit of quantity over quality just to stay on top. I’m not saying that artists who do post daily share garbage. Garbage is sometimes fun to see! But that for most this minimizes the amount of effort, love, and thought put into creative work.

The End of Social Media for Me?

Am I going away completely from social media? No. But I’m not letting it define my fulfillment as an artist. I’m going to chill, draw, and on occasion share what I’ve been working on as well as any completed projects. Freeing myself from the yoke of ‘I need to come up with something to share tomorrow, what should I do? Oh, how am I going to squeeze it in with everything else going on? I’ll push it off until 10pm’…. Then not doing it because I’m too tired and not really inspired by the fact that I’m only trying to draw something so I can stay consistently in people’s feeds.

To Wrap Up The First Shelbi Rant:

If you’ve made it to the end of my ramblings, I love you and appreciate you taking the time to read this. I love everyone who follows me and supports my work (you know who you are!). I will continue to share with you my drawings, paintings, and ramblings. I’m just going to be focusing my love and attention onto my website and my 1^st children’s book. I hope that any other artist reading this finds some camaraderie or inspiration to take steps towards being happy with the creative process again.

I am honestly so excited about the projects I have planned for 2021 and cannot wait to show you more!

P.S.– Since I’m not as active on my social media accounts anymore, we can stay in touch when you sign up for my newsletter. Look for the blue arrow at the bottom right of the page to sign up!