Studio Notes: One Painting on the Wall

I had a small win this week that felt bigger than it probably should have. I submitted a piece to a local spring show at the library, and it got accepted. There’s a $500 prize, which is nice, but that wasn’t really the part that was exciting. It was just seeing one painting leave my basement storage and exist somewhere else for a while.

(Woman By The Sea - 18x24 - Painted paper collage)

This got me thinking about how easy it is for creatives to try to skip this small, first step because it feels too small. We tend to hoard our work, waiting for something big to happen. A full gallery show, a full room of people, some big, public unveiling where everything clicks. And because that version feels far away, it’s easy to just do nothing. But none of that ever happens if the work never leaves the room. Getting one piece on one wall somewhere is enough. It’s one step forward, and it’s actually a big one. It creates a little bit of momentum that you can continue to build on, and then you just follow that with the next thing, and the next. This is the real life of anyone with a creative practice.

(Cloudy day at the sea - Ink doodle, colorized on the computer - 7x10 on bristol)

I’ve been celebrating that win while dealing with a completely different kind of tension in my head lately. Recently, things picked up on Substack, and I received a lot of new subscribers. There was growth, a lot of interaction, a sense that something was working. Then it slowed down again. That shift does something to your thinking if you’re not careful. You start reading about tactics, looking for patterns, manipulating the algorithm, trying to figure out what changed, and spending time worrying about what to do to recreate another big jump in subscribers. Without realizing it, you stop posting and engaging in a way that makes you happy to satisfy the algorithm.

This makes you a little more calculated, a little more motivated by what might perform instead of what actually feels honest. Growth that comes from chasing signals isn’t sustainable, and I hate how inauthentic it feels. The funny thing is, my most popular post of all time was a simple drawing of an octopus where I typed, “Here’s an octopus to brighten your day.” This tells me that there isn’t any “trick” to getting attention beyond posting something that people want to see and just being authentic. It’s not about tricks, tactics, volume, or length. It’s about being real. Plain and simple.

Many of you have seen the octopus drawing before, so I’m going to give another example here. The image below was extremely fun to draw, and it has nothing to do with my core subject matter of the ocean. It was just fun to draw, and I posted it with just one word, “Connections”. People really seemed to enjoy it, and it got more attention than most of my posts lately. So the takeaway for me is, don’t overthink social media. Just do what makes you happy.

On that note, I had a moment this week where everything I’ve been working on kinda came together at once. I was moving between a few different sizes and approaches in the same stretch of time. Writing, small drawings, larger paintings on canvas, works on paper, and designing physical and digital products. At the center of it is this new 100-day project I’ve been working through. Each day, I create one small 3.5-inch square of painted paper. That’s it. Nothing complicated, just one piece a day. Eventually, they’ll all come together into a 36-by-36-inch piece. I’m not even a quarter of the way through yet, but I’ve stayed consistent so far, which feels like the real win. For me, the whole thing is a metaphor for what can happen if you just take one small step forward on anything, every day.

(Painted paper square for collage - 3.5x3.5 inches)

Alongside each piece, I’ve been researching and writing something small. A thought about the ocean, a quote, a scientific detail, or a real historical story. Just something simple to sit next to the image. I’d like this to eventually turn into a meditative book with large, close-up views of each square and something to read on each page. It will all culminate with the final assembled piece at the end.

On top of it all, I even started to build an app for creatives. I’m not ready to reveal what it is except that it’s a support tool for creatives like me. They say if you want to build something successful, build it for yourself first, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. It’s a lot when I write it all out, but it doesn’t feel overwhelming right now. It actually feels pretty energizing as I try to balance it all equally.

A few months ago, this probably would have felt a little stressful. Now it just feels like momentum and fun. And I think that’s what I’m trying to hold onto. Not the idea of having everything figured out, but the simple act of continuing and moving forward with my creative practice. Putting something out into the world, finishing the next small piece, sharing something that feels honest. Then doing it again the next day.

Below are the first 16 days of my 100-day project, roughly assembled. Enjoy and have a great week!

Please consider supporting my work by becoming a subscriber.

Visit my website for original art, prints, merch, and more!