Are You an Online Artist or a Real World Artist?
Which am I? What do I want to be? What does being an online or a real world artist even mean? Let's find out!
Am I an online artist or a real world artist? This question keeps coming up for me and honestly, I’m not even sure what I mean by it. So I figured I’d write about it and see if we could work it out together?
Before we dive in, I wanted to write this little disclaimer. These are all merely my opinions and thoughts. Please feel free to take what you agree with and bin anything you disagree with. I’m not sure even I agree with all of what is written here but we all absorb things that aren’t necessarily true or helpful. I have a very black and white brain and maybe that’s why these things feel so separate to me?
This is a real time examination of some abstract thoughts. Me trying to untangle what I mean. It is maybe messy and chaotic. But I hope you’ll find it interesting none the less.
What is an Online Artist?
An online artist is someone who… posts regularly about their art. Someone who shares their process online and probably also sells their work online. It’s someone who is happy to document their day. Someone who maybe has meta ad’s running. Someone who builds an online business around their art. Someone with a website and a portfolio online who emails it out to a variety of people.
Right now, I do a lot of these things, not all of them - I have no ad spend and I only occasionally actually manage to sell my work - but I do enjoy documenting my process, talking to people online about my work and my thought process (oh hey, you’re a part of that, right now! Thankyou for reading!) I have a website and that is where I direct most people towards.
The bottom lime is I’m very comfortable being online. However, I don’t really feel like this is massively working for me… I keep doing the same things hoping for different results, I feel a little like I’m on a content treadmill without knowing how to jump off or if I event want to get off at all… Sometimes I feel isolated and lonely as an artist.
To be successful online a little part of me believes that I need to continuously do more. Find a way to get more eyes on my work. Create better, higher quality content. Share more. Be in all the places - start a YouTube channel, post some more Pinterest pins, master SEO and create a funnel to my email list, pin down my ideal client avatar (dramatic eye roll)
Honestly? Some of it is fun and exciting but also a lot of it sounds kind of dull and corporate to me. I purposefully chose art so that I didn’t have to sit chained to a desk all day staring at a screen. And yet, I find myself - admittedly on the sofa - staring at my laptop screen for big portions of the day trying to work out how to sell more art, as if there is some magic secret that will get me success if I just listen to the right person.
I am an artist, I have no marketing degree and limited knowledge of how the online space actually makes money. But I acknowledge that promoting my art feels necessary, enjoyable even, when I’m in the flow of it. I enjoy the safety I feel behind my screen, it feels like connection whilst also being one step removed. A place where maybe, I can even be more honest than I am in real life.
And there it is…
What is a Real World Artist?
To me… A real world artist is someone who’s work makes it into the real world. Someone who promotes their work at markets. Someone with a studio that real people can go and visit. Someone who has their work in galleries or public spaces. Someone who get’s asked to go on talks or has a “public view” of their work. Someone who actually goes out and meets real people, maybe has an artist in residency post. They send postal samples to the galleries even though most galleries say they don’t accept those anymore. They go out and can be seen painting in public places, documenting the world around them.
If I was to really go the whole hog and separate the real world artist from the online artist a real world artist has no interest in being online (probably because tech scares them) but actually immerses themselves in their local community. They’re interested in going to in person networking events and give out business cards that simply have an email address and a phone number on them. They give a whole new meaning to the word “visible”.
This is the artist I want to channel more of. But honestly? I’m really scared of getting out there with my art. I did one market a few years ago now and I hated it, I found the whole experience stressful and I made no money… It was embarrassing and that wasn’t even with the art I have at the moment, art that I care about so much more now.
I don’t know why I feel like I’m going to be caught out if I become a real world artist. Maybe, it’s because I expect someone to ask difficult questions that I don’t have a neat answer to or time to think about? Maybe, it’s because I don’t feel “legit” as an artist because I’m not doing any of these real world artist actions? What a vicious circle that is!
This is the part of being an artist that I deeply romanticise. Honestly, when I pictured becoming an artist it is all of this real world stuff that I pictured. The gallery shows, the studio, the artist in residency post and the big bulky portfolio I would go and show to gallery representatives. But it’s also the part I’m just not doing. At all.
Okay so back to my initial question…
Am I an online artist or a real world artist?
Right now, I’m solely an online artist.
I crave being a real world artist.
I’m deeply comfortable being an online artist in the way I am now. I enjoy it. There are so many elements of it that are so helpful and have become the foundations of my work.
But maybe it’s time to actually leave the comfort of my own home and get out there? Maybe it’s time to face my fears, stretch my comfort zone and actually get my art into the real world. Create a tangible space in the world for me and my art.
The real stumbling block to all this is I simply don’t know how to go about doing it.
Okay, maybe that’s not wholly true, I’ve listed a whole host of ways that I could get out there as an artist in this article alone. But it does feel hard, doing something that I’m just not used to doing.
If I’m being honest I think the real power comes in being BOTH an online artist and a real world artist. The people I admire most are the ones doing both. Showing me their artist lives through social media whilst also having their work in real spaces and getting themselves known to the art world.
Translating their online following into real art buyers. Translating their real world buyers into online followers who remember who they are, follow their work and become a deeply invested collector.
There have never been more ways to be an artist. The online world is an incredible tool and a great foundation for me as an artist. I regret none of what I’ve built online and I don’t really have any intention of leaving the online space.
I just know I need to start to translate that into the real world. One step at a time.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, do you agree, disagree? Where are you on the spectrum of online to real world artist? Let’s chat in the comments.
Just in case you’re new around here… Hey! I’m Amy and I’m an abstract artist who is learning to take myself more seriously, cultivating a regular painting practice and sharing that journey with you in my weekly posts. I would love to have you along for the ride!
Also, here are a few other articles from my back catalogue I think you might love.
Been struggling with this too Amy! For me, I feel like I don't belong with online Poets/Artists (I hope it's okay for me to say the former should be considered a subset of the latter), as my style of poetry often feels so out of place on social media, so misunderstood because it's not completely direct.
But I also feel so out of place with reql world Poets/Artists because it feels like my poetry is not serious, not deep enough, that I don't meet enough readers and poets at events, don't contribute enough to the community (and that I like business so much).
I'm happy you had the courage to admit how it's hard being an online Artist because I feel the same with the content treadmill. The 'cost" per person reach is much lower here, but I think the "cost" per reader/collector is lower in the real world.
Thanks for writing this again, I really needed this :)