3 reasons to SHOW YOUR WORK!

A recent theme for me has been ‘share your work’. Last week had me busy setting up and running our school’s 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 I’m 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 “Show Your Work” he raises a point that I had not considered before now – if your work isn’t on the internet, it doesn’t exist. Yes, it physically exists, but people don’t know about it. Everybody turns to the internet for everything these days, including you! If you want people to know about you, you’re going to have to share your work online. It’s the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to to get known.

“Carving 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 time” – 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 everyone’s 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 doesn’t mean their work should stay hidden. I’ve been really surprised at the positive reaction to my work – and sometimes the work getting the most likes is the work I personally don’t like. You just can’t 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 here’s 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 ‘brands’ out there. Why? Because it’s authentic. I feel more on par with where they’re at. It’s not always the amazing skills that we connect with.

“In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen – really seen” – Brene Brown

Allow yourself to be where you’re at now. And if that’s cartoon fish, then hey? That’s cool. There are people out there that like cartoon fish drawings! Be authentic. Just be you and share your work with confident humility. 

If you’re 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