After some deep contemplation I’ve decided to start with my blog again… mostly because I’ve been feeling incredibly unhappy with certain social media platforms. I think it will be great to use my own platform to share my art and my thoughts.

Do people still read blogs these days?

I have asked myself this question and I’m not actually sure! So who knows if this will be a success but I think at least it will be a good way to share my thoughts and do it in a more natural way rather than being forced to produce lots of short form content and videos at a pace that is not manageable for me, simply to appease an algorithm on Instagram or other social media, only to have no-one see my posts anyway because the algorithm was still not impressed with my effort. It’s been such a big frustration for me lately and I could even feel my mental health suffer from it!

Substack

I am considering double posting here on my own blog/website and on Substack. I’ve been diving into the Substack world this week after a friend recommended it. I love the way it seems possible to grow a community there and the energy definitely feels good. The platform does have some limitations when it coms to the design of your page but I guess that’s just a minor inconvenience if it’s a place where you can find some meaningful connections! At the same time I love how my own website does give me more of the design freedom plus it gives me some SEO and Pinterest posting advantages… All good stuff when you try to grow your business and make sure more people can discover your work…

So does this mean bye bye instagram?

I am taking a bit of a breather from instagram at the moment, only posting occasionally while I’m trying to figure out if and how I can do it so it works for me. It might mean just posting once per week going forward, or maybe scheduling content – maybe not always my most recent art. And generally just being less invested in whether the account grows or not, because it’s an investment that simply never brings in the return you want. I have considered doing away with it completely but I still like having a presence there. And I like the connections that I have there, even if it is only with a few people.

Laos Quick Sketches

Anyway, for now I just wanted to say hello and get this blog started so I’ll simply share some of my art I’ve been working on recently! The art in this post are quick sketches I made of Laos.

I visited Laos back in 2013 if I remember correctly. My mind sometimes gets a bit fuzzy about the dates, ha ha! And it was such lovely trip! I traveled around for 3 weeks. My favourite location was probably the small town of Muang Ngoi Neua. There are no roads to the village so it’s a bit cut off from the world and the only way to get there is by boat. At that time the town only had a few hours of electricity and internet each day. And the surroundings are so beautiful and peaceful. It’s rare to find such a place these days!

 

I hope you will enjoy my future blog posts!

Thanks so much for reading this one!