Social Media Curiosity.

About 8 months ago, I did a blog about my dilemmas with social media. I've been exploring not just what sites I use and how I use them but, more importantly, whether or not they are really useful to me.  My quest has led me to dis-engage from LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest.

As an artist, I work from my heart.  I'm curious, then, how to market my art from my heart, too.

I started out showing my art in a local gallery that I loved.  They had a yearly mask show.  I loved making masks.  When I'd developed a body of work that I loved, I found a place in that gallery show.  It all fit together.  I've been happy to find many shows and galleries where my heart and my art fit together.

Finding a place on the Internet, a social media site that fits my heart and art is tricky.

I started my internet marketing adventure with a website.  Over the last 15 years, as my art changed, so did my website.  I started out small, then expanded with more work, more tabs, more photos and now I have a nice, cozy, much simpler website. I feel it reflects my art and my heart with a low-key, well-designed website featuring samples of my work in functional, sculptural ceramics and mixed media masks.  It's not everything I've every shown or made, and some of what's on there right now has sold, but that 's fine.  It gives the visitor a feel for the kind of art I make.

But what about social media?  

My first social media site was a blog on Blogger. I started out with "Susan's Art & Words" and all I wanted was a place to put my writing from my mixed media pieces.  It quickly became much more than that.  I expanded to a blog with my husband, "Voices of Living Creatively" where we both used our creative voices interviewing people around us who were living creatively from the heart.  And then, in 2010, I started this blog, "Sculpting A Life" as a place to share more of my creative life from home and hearth to art and writing.  

My blogs have been a place for me to share my life and art from my heart. Sometimes, it's been scary to put myself and my soul out there. I was curious this year with my new perspective on social media, marketing, art and heart if my blog would still be a good fit.

I can't say my blog has brought me more art sales.  I do know my art pages get quite a few views.  My blog viewers have grown, too.  This is not the bottom line for me, however.

What was my goal for social media again?  Connecting and marketing my art from my heart.  

Yes.  My blog fits perfectly.  I see over time, this blog has become more than a social media marketing site.  It's become an extension of my studio, my home and place for me to see and  share how I am, sculpting a life.