AND WHY ITS IMPORTANT!
I have believed that as an artist I can let my art speak for me. It’s like a wonderful sentiment for my introverted private personality. However I have found this isn’t the best practice. Yes we absolutely what our art to speak to people as individuals and in their own way but I found that when you pair your story about your art it reaches more people and more people can relate or identify with that story than if you just put your art out into the void.
Artists are storytellers. And we have the amazing opportunity to tell those stories so we should tell them the best way we can. But also very practically if we communicate the story behind the art than it has a better chance of reaching the people who would identify with it because the way search engines work is by using keywords not identifying images or what is in an image.
So because a lot of us artists are using social media or our own website or blogs or Pinterest or what have you, we need to talk about it not just post the photo.
However even if we are only using in person methods to share our art, talking about our art is so valuable.
It’s valuable to the listener because people long for connection but also it is valuable to us because it helps us express ourselves and form words around what we were trying to communicate through our art. This can help us be more insightful and understanding of our own work.
It can be hard to talk about our art or share the story of it. I have found that journaling privately first hand really helps. Another way is to talk about it with friends and family. I have found people actually do want to hear about your art! You just gotta find the people in your life and in your circle who are already interested.
Then you start sharing on things like social media, your website and to strangers who ask you about your career instead of sheepishly ducking the question. That can’t be just me who feels off saying “I’m an artist” ! Is it?
Well either way I think it is really good to start wearing that title with pride. The more we can get comfortable with talking to people about what we do the more we can connect naturally with people and the more we can allow ourselves to connect deeper to our art and take risks and find our voice and style in art.