Art Blogging: How To Be Better

I subscribe to the blog and newsletter of Alyson B. Stanfield, an art business coach in Colorado. Her book, "I'd Rather Be In The Studio" is great and her advice, delivered to my email inbox every week, is always relevant to things I’m constantly thinking about. 

Alyson’s most recent blog post is about art blogging. Some of my favorite lines:

“If you are a working artist seeking a larger audience, your blog should be about your art and your life as an artist.”

“The primary purposes of art are to delight, question, confound, and document. Some would argue that art is for decoration. I’m not one of these people.”

“Please delight, question, and confound us! Document your world, and the world we live in.

“Most people cannot imagine what it’s like to live the artist’s life. Tell them. Show them.”

Then, she linked to a great post written in 2010(!) by a person named Hugh McLeod, who wrote about why art blogs fail or succeed. It's short and worth a read. What resonates with me most about what he says is that "the real job of the artist [is] to be a leader."

To be a leader!

I love to lead. I love to inspire. I love to be a part of people’s journeys to be better, to innovate and create, to help them attain a sense of accomplishment in ways that mean something to them.

I am a leader and an artist. How can I represent both in my blog? How can I lead through art? How can I better inspire you to do the things you want to do and be who you want to be?  These are questions I’m considering today. Meanwhile, I want to show you more than just my work; I want to tell you all about what it’s like to be a working artist (at least in my own experience). I promise to keep showing you what I’m making, but I want what I do to be meaningful to your experience too.