Please excuse the interruption to the regularly scheduled blog posting…
I’m feeling a little introspective, but not in a bad way or anything. I was just reading Andrea’s post dated Oct. 1, 2007 and I really truly laughed out loud at the absurdity of the video that she shared with her readers. You see, the video was her gift/apology for the last few months of blog posts. I think that she doesn’t think that she’s been very interesting or engaging (not true), which got me thinking… (see the dots mean I’m thinking…) Really, if I have to assume that you don’t know that I’m thinking, then what do I know about you? - or better yet, to whom am I writing and for what reason?
(I think that this post is taking an existential bent and I’m not sure that this is a good or a bad thing. Bear with me, please.)
I started blogging about 1.5 years ago after I dropped out of grad school. I thought, what the heck, I’ll be the artist that I studied to be - only - I didn’t know how to market myself. So, I found myself cruisin’ the Internet one day and found Wetcanvas, an online portal for artists.
After I became a member, I started perusing the forums - specifically the internet marketing strategies and business forums. I wanted to know how to market myself in a new age as an artist - something that wasn’t taught at the University of Southern Maine, my alma mater.
At the time that I visited Wetcanvas, everyone was talking about blogs. I jumped on the blog bandwagon and after writing a few posts, remembered that I quite like writing. In fact, I have a minor in art history and almost went on to grad school for art history because I loved researching, dissecting and writing. I was just about to write that if I were 20 years younger and didn’t have a child, I would have gone all the way - doctorate.
But, here’s where I catch myself. I make excuses for myself. If only… (the dots do not imply thinking in this case - okay, maybe wistful thinking). So, I and you, find ourselves back at my blog. (If you’ve even read this far.) I can always tell who reads my posts by your comments if you even have the energy to comment at this point.
Speaking of energy, do you think blogs are waning? Going back to Andrea’s post and perhaps my own ennui of talking about ceramic sludge, do you think that bloggers are just writing to write? Is blogging going to continue to be relevant in the future?
I don’t know the answer, I’m only thinking and writing out loud here. I have another true confession to make. Last week, I almost deleted my blog. I asked myself, “What if you were to start over, knowing what you know now?”
Why would I want to start over? What do I want to impart to you, dear readers? When I say start over, I don’t actually want to re-invent myself. I just wonder if blogs are even relevant? Are we just writing to write? I personally, like visiting other people’s blogs, including everyone in my blog roll. So, maybe blogs are relevant. Blogs link the art to the artist. The posts and shared information illuminate the person behind the art. That is one pet peeve of mine when I go to an art exhibition. I want to know what the artist is like as a person.
Did I tell you that I almost choked on a grain of salt? Now, I warned you that this is stream of consciousness writing.
By the way, I still don’t know how to market myself; but I do have a blog, something about which a good amount of people have no idea.
So I’ll loop back to the images of my paintings at the top of this post, which are from a landscape painting class that I took in Maine with one of my favorite professors, George Burk. He doesn’t even have a website which is too bad, because he’s a terrific artist and deserves to be known outside of New England.
~Cynthia
