rebel | rebel: bring back the art
a short intro for a longer conversation on artful social media, rebelling against the algo, or maybe saying F-it all together and kicking it to the curb.
Hi friends,
Down below is the first recording, which is just a casual intro on where I am, and my why.
I have been pondering and mapping this internally and externally since January 8th. Bowie’s bday. My late nephew’s bday. And pondering the new year for myself, my nervous system, how I spend my time, my business (that is a big one) and also my ethics and reasons for even being on social media.
Since February 2nd (the first day of lent) I have been on a sabbatical from the scroll, which for me was Instagram. I will be off it until April 9th. I am in the liminal space of not being sure I am at with it all.
Stepping away has allowed me massive amounts of space and clarity around using this particular social platform— I have been able to grapple with my love for how it has given me space to connect and express, but also given me time to unwind from my toxic and addictive relationship to/with it. It has made me realize I carry a lot of ghosts there and people project a fuck ton of them at others from there. This break has broken a lot of patterns for me. It has also made me realize I DO HAVE A LOT MORE TIME THAN I THINK I HAVE. And all this said, I am small business owner and community member and I am in the prayerful question of: do I need to be on there? can I be on there differently?
I have been sharing photos and writing on Instagram since 2010.
I have been a professional writer/writing facilitator, and creative business owner using Instagram as my main way of connecting with community and clients since about 2012.
I have never gone viral. But I have had a steady, sustainable space to share ideas, share my offerings, and to connect with clients/students. I have repeat clients and students. My classes fill up. My pilgrimages fill up. I get heartfelt messages that my writing and my work has touched people — I get these often. I am not IG “successful” by the definition that would be out there today. But I have created a space where my work can be held and shared. Where I have garnered trust from people.
As a writer/artist by birth and a writer by trade - I have a Masters in Fine Arts with pedagogy, I found the IG space (originally, back in 2010 and for quite a few years after that) a wildflower field of opportunity to write freely, to support others in writing, to match words and images that found their way into my day, to share philosophy, poetry, and unknowing. To share my workshops, classes, and offerings.
And as I say in the recording below, I don’t feel that wildflower field anymore. Instead I feel like I am expected to be a dancing circus poodle (with filters) allowed 15 seconds to say something of absoluteness (i.e. “want to learn how to….. ). I feel it is a space to TELL (not show) and to push buttons instead of grow digital flowers.
There leaves no room for art. For nuance. For being weird, wild, wrong. It leaves no room for conversation. It leaves no room. Because it is not a room. It is a square. That is mining you, selling back to you, and in essence, telling you how to behave and create.
There is a carrot dangling, a come hither hypnotization, and if you perform well — you too can make you “grow” - Expand. Get more people. Get more likes. Get more bots (which is really more like it). Get more. Get more. Money. Success. Fame. And if you don’t do that you will be left out. Our business will fail. You are not enough. You are nothing. Nobody even likes you. Who cares if your poetry makes someone fall to their knees and cry because there is no trending sound behind it. Sounds exactly like everything else that suffocates us in capitalism. But yeah, I know, it’s the world we live in.
Anyway. One of the reasons I started this substack was to be able to write freely, without confines, without word count, without an algorithin, without sticking to a “brand” or a subject of “expertise” (my expertise is artful beingness, innovation, creation, contemplation). I wanted a place where there would be no links to invite you to sign up to anything else I am offering (and I do have a lot of offerings but I will not put them on here because I never want to taint this space or risk my freedom of just making art, or having any conversation I want.
So all of this, really, the whole thing, this conversation I am putting out here, the prompts, the recordings — wondering about this whole social media clusterfuck - the content mining, the being hidden if you don’t play the game, the FOMO, the feeling you have to show up in a specific way for a specific reason—this is to just explore all of it, to be with it, to slow down for a moment or two and consider this: do I have to do what they tell me? Or can I be a rebel? And do what I want? Can I slow down? Pay attention? Show up differently? And give permission to others to do the same? Can we become art again, make art again, and not worry about the social capital or what we get from it? Instead …
Can we remember to give? Without needing to fit into the box?
Welcome to experiencing REBEL REBEL: bring back the art.