I have been encouraged to use a blog to both reflect on my own learning and also find out how social media can help me develop my career. I found navigating the process tricky at first but the more I use it and practice, I can see the benefits of this type of communication to reach an audience (on a-n, for example, connects with other artists), potential collectors and curators. Katherine Tyrrell is a top art blogger with information about art exhibitions, but also contains articles for art lovers as well as artists. Along with art news and ongoing/upcoming art competitions, Making a Mark has guides, tutorials, and how-tos. You can also visit links where Katherine posts her own artworks made with pastels and pencils. You can read about the materials she uses. Also writes for many other blogs.
I recently visited Tate Modern to see the Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian exhibition. Using YouTube I can watch videos and listen to audio to gain insight and opinion about the show. Tate also uses the platform to create interest in their own exhibitions as well to educate. I can look at other exhibitions from all over the world easily and research information about the art world. Uploading films of my own practice, I could gain followers and it is free to use. Artistic processes from online tutorials as in the example below, is easy and often useful. Louise Fletcher for example has created a large following (52.7K subscribers) with her online tutorials which leads them to her paid-for membership group Art Tribe and her own exhibitions.
YouTube had 2.6Billion users last year which is an incredible potential audience and although not every artist wants to engage with it, this platform could enable me to grow my audience if I used it regularly to post about my work and processes using short films.
On Instagram, I noticed Winchester School of Art started following me, so I followed back and saw their post announcing the nominees for the WCA 2023 Painting prize, which included me from University of Suffolk. This was uplifting so I reposted on my feed and on stories which got quite a bit of traffic and likes. This shows how having my social media tags on any prize application can lead to extra publicity, and a symbiotic relationship between curators and artists.
