Making handmade watercolor paint in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

 

Making handmade watercolor paint in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

handmade watercolor paint experimentation on a map of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

I'm back here in Appalachia. I used to blog a lot and now it feels like ancient history. I'd like to pick it back up again. I think that we can over-think social media related things just like we can over-think making art. I feel like I have gotten to the other side of that now when it comes to my art, but I still get stuck when it comes to putting myself out there online in various ways. 

Recently, I watched Jonna Jilton's vlog with little clips of all of her subscribers sending their messages out into the world. She asked her YouTube subscribers, "What would you say to 4 million people?" as a way of celebrating that she arrived at 4 million subscribers. People sent in their messages from all over the world. It was so very beautiful. I didn't send anything in. I thought about it, I almost did and then I let it slip by. Oh well, it's okay. It was just very moving to see all those people share and come together in a community that she has created with her own energy and life. I loved it. Jonna is a master at many things, and social media is definitely one of them. 

I feel like, for me, putting myself out there on social media is somewhat confusing. First of all, I don't like the feel of social media. I recently canceled my Facebook account for good. I didn't like it for a long time, but then I discovered that many of my posts were being "hid" by Facebook, which,  means that they just don't allow them to be on the newsfeed. They were posts of professional mountain biker, Kyle Werner being interviewed by Dr. John Campbell because of how sick he became after his second Covid vaccination. Kyle is one of the most genuine people I've ever encountered. 

Anyways, needless to say, I find many of the social media platform's "community guidelines" to be unethical and it's hard for me to feel excited about participating in these platforms when they are censoring so much content right now. YouTube has these same "community guidelines", as does Patreon, Instagram etc. 

I'm not sure what else to say about that right now. I go over and over it in my head though. (and in my heart). I have so much to say about it actually, having grown up in a family where self-censoring was part of the family culture. I keep thinking about making a video about all my thoughts about this and just putting it out there wherever and seeing what happens. Censoring is part of an abusive culture. That's what I know. It's certainly nothing new in western culture. We're just seeing it happen in a new way right now because of the internet. 

I didn't mean to write about that. But I guess it is just so much on my mind right now, I needed to start with it. I am about to move into a new studio tomorrow. I've been out in Appalachia now for a few months. It has felt weird to be back. I felt it, in my body, that I needed to come back here. Sometimes that feeling is impossible to explain intellectually. It's just a sense. And I still feel that way. I've been sleeping in my car and house/pet sitting. I was doing this out in New Mexico also, and it worked out extremely well. It's easier in New Mexico than here. I think it's easier all over the western US than the east. 

It is looking very likely though that I will move into an adorable little red house in Bakersville. I went out and looked at it and met the man who owns the land and lives on the land. His name is Stan. He is a potter. The moment I met him I felt like I had known him all my life. He has his home and studio on the land and works on his pottery back behind his house, surrounded by forest.

I know this blog post is jumbled. That's okay. Maybe I will get back into blogging more, maybe I will find my own grove with how I put myself out there into the world. That's always the goal right? To find one's own way. I like writing my newsletters and I like the way I get responses through that format. I also like that I own the list of people and can transfer it to any platform I want. 

I've made a commitment of sending out one newsletter a month (on the 5th) and I feel pretty good about it. I feel confident that I can do it. There is always more going on though than I can really put into one newsletter per month. So, I think blogging may come back into my life. 

I just went backpacking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and brought all my watercolor paint making supplies with me, which is totally crazy, I know. I suffered the consequences of this insane decision and am still recovering, but I did manage to make this sweet little video. enjoy!