Good afternoon and happy Friday ☼
I know something about myself, and it is that I am not on this beautiful earth to ‘create content’. ◡̈
Social media in relationship to art practice has been a big topic in my conversations lately, and also for a while now. As much as this sounds like it’s heading toward paragraphs of loathing, I actually find it to be positive and insightful to talk about this, because it gets me clear on what really inspires me. By identifying things that don’t feel supportive for practice, it reunites me with the things I do find supportive.
I have been thinking about what it means to protect my practice. What do I owe my allegiance to? What am I truly dedicated to? Definitely not to dopamine. Definitely not to instant gratification. Definitely YES to fully experiencing the present moment and exploring the living nature of creativity. My boundaries are easier to set and stick to when I remember the importance of what is being protected by them.
Creative process + phone + desire for wellbeing = ??? (We are still figuring this out).
One way I know I am in a flow state is if I completely forget about my phone. A flow state to me feels like an immeasurable lapse of time in which I am fully present. When I’m there, I don’t even think about how I could make that experience into a little video. It doesn’t even cross my mind. Doing that would require a whole separate stream of attention, therefore totally preventing a single-stream flow. It is multi-tasking, and I’m not really into fragmenting my attention. That takes me further away from what I am really trying to be in contact with. This is my inspiration for letting go of grasping and surrendering to the moment instead. What important things are are we sacrificing just to see if we can gain attention? Life is much too short for that.
~~~ To remember: Practice is for the practitioner, performance is for an audience. ~~~
My dear friend Avery, who’s artistic practice uplifts me a lot, brought this perfect rhetorical question up in conversation the other day: If people aren’t cheering for you, do you still want to make the art? YES. We also compared making little videos on social media to making infomercials and how all of a sudden we are getting the message that we need to be making little commercials for our art / product / service, which made me laugh a lot because when you say it like that, it’s hilarious and true.
A good question:
What do you still want to do, just as much, regardless of audience?
Do that!!!
Sure, there are some benefits of sharing our process and art online in some ways. But not at the expense of our health. I suggest conducting your own deep personal investigation into what kind of sharing supports your practice and what actually doesn’t.
For example, I occasionally make process videos of mixing my earth paints. (I also like to record them so I can re-create the colors I like anyway!) I don’t record myself during the intimate moments of the creative process that involve contemplation, conception of ideas, instinctual decision making, long quiet periods of studio time, intuition, inner magic. As meaningful as it feels inside to me, it would actually appear to be soooo incredibly boring to you. And it would threaten the authenticity of that process.
My advice is to try to set boundaries that are centered on your quality of attention. Attention is something to be treasured and respected. Stability of attention keeps my system clear which is very supportive! I know that for my system, an endless stream of 30 second videos packed with overstimulation would totally fry my attention span and waste precious time. So for me, it’s a hard NO forever on getting an account on TikTok. I also limit my exposure to any Instagram feed and don’t have that app on my phone. This may sound extra restrictive or overly disciplined, but actually, this is a very soft and self-loving solution to a situation that I know can cause harm to my wellbeing if left unchecked. My social media boundaries are spiritual and they’ve stuck around for years. They are protection spells I have set for my self-preservation and my creative survival. And they are working ◡̈
I hope this doesn’t sound too much like just another tired social media roast. I really am grateful for it, because it is a huge opportunity that can teach us a lot.
Some reflection questions for you:
+ What are your social media boundaries when it comes to your creativity?
+ What messages are you getting from the current art + media landscape that make you feel pressured to create content for attention?
+ What parts of your practice you can share in ways that don’t eventually cause emotional discomfort?
+ How do you / can you protect and honor the parts of your creative process that are intimately yours?
Keep practicing ♡
-Kristen
P.S. RESEARCH QUESTION: Do you have any personal solutions that have helped you as an artist / being / small business owner or otherwise for ways to connect your art / product / service with others in ways that don’t threaten your well-being? I want to hear about it!