Guest Post – What Artists Can Teach Everyone About Social Media

Great post and timely as I was just talking to another artist and how social media may be used. As a photographer with a technology background I have been able to make some sense of the medium but I know photographers, painters and artists of other medium who I will pass this along to so they can get a better sense as well.

This is an awesome post. As an artist and a business person I find that working from my artists vantage is always the most productive activity. The most creative and insightful solutions come to me when I work through my artists process to get there.

And as Jay pointed out above, it’s true, artists must create. But creation isn’t just about making physical representations. I look to create all things in my life, including doing the laundry! it makes the whole process so much more interesting! Learn your process, know yourself and walk through all your solutions from that place. :)

Good post, Amrita! I went to your gallery but couldn’t see the first picture. Maybe my PC is acting up. My husband Rodgers http://www.grnaylor.com is an fine artist who started his professional life as a geologist then a contracts director. His passion radiates to all as he talks about art and shows people around his studio. He reminds many people that we have choices in our life, more than we realize. His passion has led me to find something I am passionate about and figure out out to make a living by it, cooperative intelligence. I don’t really have any guidelines for how to get there, but with friends and synchronicity I know it will happen. Such good advice to Twitter with people outside your space, just like in life outside of social networks. That’s how you stay interesting and inspired! Chris, invite her back!!!

Brilliant – refreshingly new :)

Jason Alba
CEO – JibberJobber.com
Author – I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???

Thanks for the article! I really enjoyed it (especially being an artist :)

Amrita! I love this post. Our minds work in similar ways, I’m surmising by reading this post. As I go through my life and my day, I find connections between seemingly unconnected things…my writing blog is a place where I get to connect those things and have a blast with the way my mind works. Off to tell my peeps on Twitter all about this outstanding post – thanks for writing (and thanks to Chris for featuring you!).

Excellent post Amrita! Above all, I liked “live an interesting life.” Time to get out of our comfort zones, try something new and grow. Learning from others that aren’t afraid to try something new and color outside the lines is always a plus. Thanks for your excellent insight!

Amrita, you’ve nailed it with this post. and I agree It’s important for people to see that this medium breaks down so many social barriers allowing you to interact with people you normally might not due to bias, opinion etc. I compare this movement to the Italian Renaissance so many great minds concentrated in one place. You have the Medici (VC’s), students, and masters. In this new world not everyone will be a Piero della Francesca but you could just lean from one.

Thanks for the mention and @jaygoldman is correct we are very lucky to have you in Toronto. Looking forward to #arts&crafts talks :D

<3 @ryantaylor

Everyone – thank you so much for all the wonderful comments. I am thrilled to have a chance to write for this blog, as I have learned so much from Chris & appreciate what a generous man he is.

David – I would be happy to talk to you about approaching galleries – please email me at amrita@tinkugallery.com or ping me on Twitter @tinkugallery

Ellen – your PC is not acting up, seems IE7 browsers aren’t viewing the image on the gallery site so I am needing to fix it – long laundry list of site updates I need to get to in January.

Major dope article. It’s great to other artists that use social media.

Good stuff, the point about dealing with social media criticism I feel is worth emphasizing. The echo chamber is so loud that artists, or anyone, new to the medium might be scared off from negative feedback. It’s worth understanding, going in, that every critic may have a microphone, but not necessarily an audience; and who says having a microphone warrants being listened to in the first place?

Excellent blog, interesting how the perspectives of others and other fields can color and change your view of things. I am constantly learning from my fellow Twitterers and checking their web sites and blogs is a wonderful form of continuing education without the classroom walls:)

Great Post Amrita! I’ve learned so much about business from watching creative artists express themselves and tapping into my creative parts to discover new ways of doing.

Amrita,

Thanks for the post.

I am an artist and have been active on Twitter for a whole month now.

I have found social media to be a kind of natural pool I can swim in, because I am a communicator. There are no gate keepers, pretensions, or social ranks. Anyone can follow me and we can message each other. I follow all my followers.
One of my first act was to stage an art event on Twitter. More is coming soon.
I agree that the Brooklyn Museum is doing a good job. I hope more museums begin to reach out and interact, rather than just post their own info. soon

And thanks also to Chris Brogan for inviting you to the blog.

Judy Rey Wasserman
On Twitter: judyrey

I wrote and posted and article titled on 12/25, then read your article today. I wish I’d done those in reverse order! What a wonderful piece.

The thought behind “How Johnny Cash Would Tweet” also has to do with authenticity in social media. I argue that Johnny Cash is great inspiration if you’re thinking of using Twitter for business.

Sorry, I messed up the tags.
The post is How Johnny Cash Would Tweet at
http://blog.b2bcommunications.com/2008/12/25/how-johnny-cash-would-tweet/#more-503

Great piece Amrita! The perspective of an artist-creator is one that inspires me, because of the way an artist engages with the world – not as a supplicant, but as an agent of change, with intent. Finding that perspective means finding something inside oneself together with a curiosity about the world that is unique and personal. Your post has me thinking about artists and social media creators as both engaged in acts of meaning-making. Thanks for the stimulus!

Amrita, fantastic post. I believe cross-pollination of ideas from one are to another is important for creativity (or innovation, if you will). Most of my artist friends are not really online; it will be a much richer place once they are.

Cheers,
Connie

Sometimes, I get the feeling that all this Web 2.0 and Social Media stuff is done by techies and marketing folks for its own sake. The ultimate reason we do anything — including making money — is to enhance the human experience; for ourselves during the short time we have and for others when we have gone.

A couple of decades ago, I was graduated from college with an English degree. The first thing anyone ever said to me then was “What can you do with THAT!” My reply was then and still is, “What CAN’T I do with an English degree.”

Because I can read and write well, I have been blessed with a creative life thus far that has very little to do with pigeon holes and almost nothing to do with technology as an end, only a means. (http://gerardmclean.com/cv if you care to see )

My son graduated this month with a BFA and he is getting the same question. He answers it a little bit differently, mostly with a kind of blank stare at the other person as if they simply don’t understand the question they just asked. But, he’ll be fine and in demand because while he can run circles around the tech guys in PHP, Perl, MySQL, etc, he has the added advantage of understanding that ultimately anything he creates — whether digitally or not — is to enhance the human experience.

http://twitter.com/chirn9980 if you wish to follow a ground-level art career.

@Connie Crosby too bad tech people and artists don’t mix in the same circles all that often. Shame on us as a society for putting them in separate camps to begin with. Shame on them for adding bricks to the walls.

“Dye your hair pink.” Hmmm. If you need any pink hair dying help, let me know. ;) twitter.com/halcyon ;)

Great article! I’ve been a bit frustrated by the volume of conversation *about* the tools. It’s like hanging out in Home Depot all day. But the true magic is what people DO with the tools. Thanks for posting.
p.s. I posted recently about “life as art.” http://is.gd/e0DY

Very nice! I have been waiting to hear a good post on the correlation between the social media and artists. I was beginning to feel a bit alone in all the Web 2.0, viral, seo talk.

Brava! terrific post! @ David LaMorte, who asked about other artists using social networks — we’re not visual artists, but I created a simple Facebook group for new media, film & TV writers (ink canada – Canadian screenriters & their sketchy friends) to connect our often isolated and far-flung talent to each other, and the world industries we work in, all over. (It’s a global group, and all are welcome!). And, in Canada, this is becoming a very successful route for many kinds of artists. Ink is driven sheerly by user interest & a common desire to have an ‘online coffee room’ environment anyone can access & feel free to network in, regardless of credentials. In fact it was a desire to close the gap between the workingpros and those coming up behind us that inspired the idea. In addition to constantly promoting dialogue with one another online (which helps us know each other when the nature of our work itself or sheer geography would make this impossible), we set up casual meet-up events across the country on demand, organize info drives, interview noteworthy community builders & role models, and have even participated in a political campaign or five as a group that helped promote our work, raise awareness for our community issues, & fight for freedom of expression all over. Plus, we’re trading tips on craft, gigs, new diversification opportunities & education via our ‘collective mentorship’ design on the page, around the clock. And it’s entirely driven by all kinds of members of the creative community with everything from shelves full of awards, to artists from loads of other disciplines, to complete newbies, to our beloved fans, & of course — the social-media curious. Now we have 8 online interns (volunteers, many students) getting ready to pursue their writing careers with the help of a much wider pool of senior contacts & insights than they could access on their own, while helping us all stay on top of breaking news and discussions that touch any level of experience in our line. We’ve enjoyed tremendous good will & cooperation from our industries as a result. I’d say, artist to artist? The future for artists online is limited only by our courage to get out there and create whatever you sense is missing. Chances are you’ll soon find a lot of folks who are very glad you did.