3 reasons to SHOW YOUR WORK!
A recent theme for me has been āshare your workā. Last week had me busy setting up and
running our schoolās annual art exhibition. We celebrate the achievement of our
Year 12 art and design students by displaying their work in our town hall for
public viewing. Regardless of what the work is like, all of our year 12
students are included. After a whole year of developing this work, it would be
a shame not to share it.
Personally, I am still participating in Inktober
although I had fallen behind and had to catch up! Inktober has been an interesting experience so far and I still have many to
go! Most of the drawings I have done for Inktober are small,
cartoony little things that Iām not 100% happy with, but I show them anyway. It's one of the 'rules' of Inktober, but apart from that, why do I show my work?
1) To
show my work exists
Austin Kleon has written
two (soon to be three) books on the subject of artistic process, and in his
book āShow Your Workā he raises a point that I had not considered before now ā
if your work isnāt on the internet, it doesnāt exist. Yes, it physically
exists, but people donāt know about it. Everybody turns to the internet for
everything these days, including you! If you want people to know about you,
youāre going to have to share your work online. Itās the quickest, easiest and
cheapest way to to get known.
āCarving out space for
yourself online, somewhere where you can express yourself and share your work,
is still one of the best possible investments you can make with your timeā ā
Andy Baio
2) To
give my work an audience
I teach art at a secondary school, and as part of our curriculum I teach students to
bring their own interpretations to an artwork. I show students that everyoneās connection to
a work can be different. The viewer brings their own thoughts and interpretations
to a work based on their own past experiences, which in turn deepens and
enhances the work through a layer-cake of connections. The work can take on more meaning through being seen. Such is the beauty of
the arts! Visual artists often make artworks just for themselves, but that
doesnāt mean their work should stay hidden. Iāve been really surprised at the
positive reaction to my work ā and sometimes the work getting the most likes is
the work I personally donāt like. You just canāt pick what the viewer is going to
connect with. So, I thought: If my art has the potential to interact with an
audience, to make them think or just give them something pretty/funny/interesting to look at, why would I deny my artwork that chance?
3) To
practice confident humility
The whole ball game of
likes and follows can be pretty daunting at times. Some days I get lots of
likes, other days my following takes a hit. (When I stopped colour pencil work
to start Inktober, 20% of my followers dumped me!) Scrolling through Instagram
on a bad day can make me feel like everyone else has their thing and is
smashing it, and all I can manage is some wobbly cartoon fish! But hereās the
thing I realised on pondering the point above: sharing your work can be an act of
service. Somebody out there will appreciate your work. It might inspire them or just make them smile. People will admire you for being brave enough to put your stuff out there, whatever it is. I
follow lots of teenagers and emerging artists on Instagram, more so than the
beautifully crafted ābrandsā out there. Why? Because itās authentic. I feel
more on par with where theyāre at. Itās not always the amazing skills that we
connect with.
āIn order for
connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen ā really seenā ā
Brene Brown
Allow yourself to be
where youāre at now. And if thatās cartoon fish, then hey? Thatās cool. There
are people out there that like cartoon fish drawings! Be authentic. Just be you
and share your work with confident humility.
If youāre following this blog and are
sharing your work online, hit me up with a link! I'd like to see what you do.
Until next time,
Erin
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