Totally Necessary

So you have a great idea, but can barely draw a stick figure without him looking like he has some grotesque stick disease. All right, well, you need an artist! Someone who is going to use their years of education (whether professional or self taught), hours upon hour of practice, and many skills to take what you have written, work on it with you, and bring your story to life. And surely, because your story is the best thing this professional artist has ever read, they will be willing to donate hours upon hours of their time to making your baby come to life, because artist are just waiting around for great opportunities! No. Get out of my face. But that's not fair , you might think. I'm not rich! I struggle! I can't pony up someone else's rent money AND my own every month! Welcome to the art life. It's not fair. But alright. Let's talk about what ELSE you can bring to the table. And please keep in mind, some artist won't want to trade anything

I am super body positive. Like super. I think all bodies are beautiful. I think the variety of bodies alone is what makes them beautiful. Fat, saggy bodies striped with iridescent lightning bolt stretch marks, with soft rolls of flesh. Old, wrinkled bodies that look like topography maps of a life well lived. Thin bodies with bones pressing again delicate skin. Colors ranging from that of the rich earth, pale and shot through with rich blues and purples, wine colored spots, freckles, sun burns...the variety of humanity is so freaking beautiful. Body positivity brought that to me. Just like becoming familiar with any subject, looking at bodies out side of the paradigm of western beauty standards made me appreciate all of them. Of course I have my preferences for what I like most, that's how humans work. But breaking that brain washing of "Only THIS is beautiful" helped me see lots of beauty. Like...have you ever stopped and thought about how gorgeous stretch mark

Social media is scary. I mean it's really, really awesome too. But it is a mess of unspoken rules, huge potential, and a HUGE variety of wonderful ways to fuck it up. I'm not a social media queen, by any means. But I have been working at getting better at it, and recently, due to another day job, gotten the opportunity to really explore artist and creators social media from the point of view of someone looking for information about artist, to promote them, and between the two, would like to offer up some advice on some social media basics. This is all pretty basic stuff, but all mistakes I have run into in the last few weeks: #1: HAVE A SOLID SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE.   Your name should be unique and specific enough that when I plug you into google, I can get relevant hits off the first page. Google social media name s before you choose them, make sure that you aren't drowned out by bigger companies, other creatives, or so generic it ends up in a sea of same.