A Note for Subscribers
You may have noticed I’ve switched platforms! In switching to Substack, I’ve been able to create two options for subscribing. As a free member you will continue to get an email once a month with updates on artwork, exhibitions, and longer writings (like the one below.) For $5.00 a month, or $50 per year, you’ll get access to travel essays, previews of new artwork, and first option to purchase work often before it’s exhibited. You have the option of choosing any amount higher than $50 if you’d like! As a paid subscriber, you are also helping to support the continuation of my work as an independent artist.
August Updates
This is my last month stateside until next summer! I’ll be leaving for Lisbon, Portugal at the end of this month, where I’ll be in residence with Duplex AIR. Then I’ll be bouncing around Europe, Northern Africa, and Vietnam (if I’m not persuaded to move to South Africa for the winter.), hopefully skipping my second winter in a row. In March I’ll begin a residency in Kathmandu, Nepal with Space A, lasting through spring.
I’ll be holding a studio sale at the end of August! On August 27th I’ll be at the Edwardsville Farmers Market, with my usual lot, all discounted. I’ll be posting videos and offers on my Instagram account throughout the market, giving you the option of purchasing in person or online. I’m trying to find happy homes for all of my available work.
If that’s too far off for you, my online store will continue to be updated through the month! Only 2 pieces from my summer collection: People, Places, and Things are still available! One more painting will drop next week to round out the series.
Algorithmic Decay
Social media started as a way to share moments with friends and family. It wasn’t a compulsion or a stage. You could share your engagements, death announcements, reconnect with past friends and lovers. In the last ten years, it’s become a way to cultivate and perform an identity. “I am x, just look at my photos, my aesthetic, my follower count.”
I took a step back from Instagram this time last year by deleting my personal account. My two accounts represented the two halves of my life, my work and personal experiences. I’d been posting more and more about my work hoping to engage with a larger audience, ultimately so that I could continue to work as an independent artist. I was also continuing to post personal photos on my other account. Most of my life was being documented and curated, then presented to hundreds of people. I wasn’t doing it for me, though. I was doing it because I felt I had to.
Once upon a time, the things we did meant something. Having long hair was a statement against the Vietnam war. Wearing blue jeans meant you worked on a ranch. Posting on social media was easier than individually calling each one of your relatives. In a larger sense, ignoring the impact algorithms have on the content we see, are we not moving to a place devoid of meaning?
We look at time as the linear occurrence of events, one thing happens before another. As time progresses, entropy increases. Entropy is complicated, but it can be thought of as decay. It refers to the arrangement, or good behavior, of atoms. As it increases, atoms become a bit wilder and run away. Time goes on, entropy increases, things begin to lose their form. You place an apple on the counter, time passes, it decays. Establish a community forum, time passes, it loses its shape, it decays.
Is the decay of Instagram inevitable?
Since beginning to use Instagram as a tool to market and sell artwork, I’ve hear artists complaining that the “algorithm” isn’t on our side. I didn’t believe this until recently. And even now, I don’t fully believe that the lack of meaning on Instagram is the fault of the thing itself. Instagram, like TikTok and Facebook, is responding to how we as a population are changing. Our willingness to slow down and engage with one another is disappearing. Rarely do we take the time to read an article when we could read a headline, so why would we take the time to read a long caption? Our curiosity may be the next victim of entropy.
I started this newsletter as a way to show up fully and authentically as an artist. I want to be able to share my thoughts, artistic concepts, and travels with people who want to witness them. Instagram is not that space anymore, though I’ll continue to post. And I’ll continue to send you an email once a month, maybe twice if I’m feeling extra spicy. They’ll always be intentional, and you can always take them or leave them - that part is up to you.