Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Last week, I was advised to develop a content strategy for this blog to help me reach more people and build an audience for my art in general. This seemed like reasonable advice, so I looked into how to do that with a quick internet search.
Every article that came up was advice for corporations and businesses starting blogs with the goal of pushing their main product. Even the advice for people just wanting to monetize their blogs included the same basic advice: focus on an incredibly specialized niche. Don’t just write about food, focus on vegan waffle recipes! Your content should all attract prospective customers and convince them to buy your egg-shaped label maker! All of it felt so soulless.
For the rest of the day, I sank into heavy despair. The writing I share is incredibly personal; it is the most vulnerable I ever am. I don’t want to feel like a product. I want to be able to write about the things that I feel are true and meaningful and beautiful, that would move and inspire others who might see themselves in my words. These articles made me feel like I would never be able to reach people with this approach; that I’m simply Doing It Wrong. Audiences will never want to read what I have to offer, or they’ll read a snippet and hate it, and this is all a waste of time.
Tonight I reopened my copy of Make Your Art No Matter What, by Beth Pickens. I had read it earlier this year because, well, I wanted to make my art no matter what, but when I flipped through the pages tonight, I wasn’t even thinking about how rereading it might help me through this artistic crisis. I was struck by this passage that I had heavily underlined (headline emphasis mine):
Sometimes artists can get hung up on how they imagine someone will respond to the art they’re still in the midst of creating; don’t give the power to your fear about audience response. That’s a bad relationship!
Your job is not to please your audience. Your job is to make your art and help it be in the world.
There is a lid for every pot, and there is a person who loves every work created.
-Beth Pickens, Make Your Art No Matter What
Although I want to eventually be able to support myself financially through my art, I also need to be true to myself and help bring my work into the world. Reading this passage, I feel a sense of peace with letting my work be what it will be, and hold faith that someone out there will love it. I will hold this nugget of wisdom close to my heart as I continue sharing my writing here. I hope it helps other artists in your journeys too.
Riffs on the Reg 
I love and agree with what Beth Pickens wrote.
When I read your share, “Audiences will never want to read what I have to offer, or they’ll read a snippet and hate it, and this is all a waste of time.” my heart went out to you as I know this feeling.
My second thought was – a more non-oppressive, non-suppressive, and non controlling – or as I like to say – a more transmuted way to think about this and how to commit to your art in the way that speaks to you – is to write what you love, to write your vulnerable, transparent way, from your desires to prioritize your art, and the audience that is yours and does exist will follow.
There may exist some capitalist MBA/AI-generated opinions for you to get more eyes on your art, but I believe if you write from your true, authentic desire and passion, with consistency, the audience will indeed follow. While I agree your job is not to please the audience, I believe that writing in the way you have described will please the audience that is already yours and will grow with you as your art grows.
You don’t have to wait for someone out here to love what you are doing. The love is already here. The universe is your side, and in the 3D, you have at least this reader … I’m sure others exist too, but we don’t matter in terms of imagining, creating, and fostering your art. I believe this to be true because it is what you love to do, it is what you desire, it’s your passion. Follow that, and the rest will come as you imagine.
Thank you for inspiring me and for sharing you, here.
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awwww. I wrote this whole long, in a support response to this, and WordPress deleted it.
Suffice it to say – i agree – imagine, create and foster the art you love, in teh way that feels more authentic to who you are and the audience will follow.
I am sure in the traditional MBA/ capitalist lens / Ai generated opinions that exist on how to grow an audience – being inauthentic is core to the offerings- but I get the sense your intuition and truest inner voice is pushing against this and wants to fly free, to not be boxed by these false constraints – to move by being true to yourself. This is what I call to transmute the BS of oppressive, suppressive, and controlling false premises of being. KUDOS TO YOU!
Your words, your art, and your authenticity are already supporting me as an artist and writer. You are inspiring. Keep going, and as you grow your art, I believe so too will your audience grow.
Thank you for modeling introspection, vulnerability, self-awareness, and love for self and voice.
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This means so much to me, Diedra–thank you so much for your kind words and encouragement! I’m so grateful to have you here and enjoying what I have to offer through my writing.
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