Living Slower
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
I used to be a prolific blogger. I wrote all the time, about absolutely everything. And then we all started moving to social media, and blogging took a back seat...until blogging basically fell out of the car and was left by the roadside, never to be seen again. Or so I thought.
I have been very online for the last several years, and I got very good at using social media to promote my art. But I also got tired. Social media moves very fast, and there is an unspoken requirement that if you want to be seen, you show up constantly. And also make sure you're always fresh and funny and well rested and full of new ideas and answering every single question that gets asked always be polite never take offense to random strangers who tell you how stupid you are even if they tell you every single day because you still need to be fresh and funny and innovative and pleasant but don't forget to make the art and do your taxes and update your website and be fresh and funny and never weary and when content scrapers steal your words and when AI steals your art and your face and offers it for sale on TEMU for $3 make sure that you are fresh and funny and innovative and never weary and if this isn't what you thought success would feel like you probably just need to move faster and make more content and when 20 million people watch one of your videos you will get to monetize and Meta will send you $1.53 and everything will be AMAZING.
But for real. That's what it feels like. And there's truth in there. Millions of views DOES equal monetization, but it can be sporadic, and sometimes it's not very much money at all. There were weeks where I would spend 3-4 hours a day just responding to comments and DMs, and I would make nothing from monetization and make 1 or 2 sales on my website. I absolutely love my online community, but keeping up with it was really hard, because as much as I wish I could offer everything for free, I have bills to pay. And isn't it weird that it feels so uncomfortable to say "My art - which includes my video, photographed, and written content -cannot be free anymore, because like nearly every other adult in the world, I have bills to pay." There seems to be this idea that art and the details of how to create art should always be offered freely to the masses, regardless of the harm that it might cause the creators of that art. And that we also shouldn't even talk about it, because talking about money and art makes the art seem ugly.
Please excuse me while I bury my inner starving artist. She has died, because of course she has.
That is what starving does.
It kills.
But death and decay and destruction can create fertile soil for new growth, and I'm so very good at rising from the ashes. I've talked about the burnout that I experienced over the past couple of years. I've talked about making life changes and seeking other forms of employment that would allow my creativity to flourish without being bound by the restraints of "this has to sell or no one gets paid." I've mentioned that I decided to go into home health care and get certified as a nursing assistant.
And what a blessing that has been. It has forced me to slow down in the most wonderful way. I get to listen to people's stories. And music. And make art. And just talk. All of these little daily rituals that I do with my clients have to be done at 1/10th of the pace I've been moving these last several years.
These are the stupid flowers that I should have stopped to smell. They are everywhere. They are fragrant and beautiful and I can't believe how many of them I have missed because life was just moving so very fast.
Because of these lessons in slower living, I've been able to recover from the burnout and step back into my art practice again. But it looks a little different this time around. I cannot be the starving artist anymore. It's not healthy, and it's not realistic. I'll still show up on social media, although not nearly as much. I'd like to keep most of my content over here on my website, where it feels at least partially protected from AI and content scrapers. And some of it will remain free, and some of it will be part of a paid subscription...because that starving artist did die, so things are different now.
If you'd like to support my work and subscribe, I've offered a few different tiers:
However you support me, even if you just showed up to read this blog, please know that I appreciate you. I love being an artist, and I love being an artist in community with you. I hope you stick around.
Love,
Jessica
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