Marketplaces are the Devil (not really, but yeah)
Remembering a legend | Don't make this mistake | Snacking on success
Make a lofty claim in the headline—force me to unpack the hype, but not before I say thanks for reading, and if you’re a subscriber and feel like referring friends, you can earn some nifty things for yourself.
Remembering Heather Hamilton
My first blog, Fresh Rag, was dedicated to writing about art and artists that use paper as their primary medium (rag is a descriptor of paper type). I don’t honestly do not remember what year I started that blog, but I do remember why I started it.
I was reading another blog by a designer named Ryan (I can’t remember the name of that blog now either—this is how old age begins), and in one particular post, he talked about some of the blogs that got him started. One of those blogs was Dooce.com.
Heather Hamilton wrote Dooce, and she originally wrote about whatever she felt was interesting about her daily life, and she was hilarious. Unfortunately, coworkers found her then-anonymous blog, and they weren’t happy about how they were being portrayed, so she was fired, which spurred a new word—Dooced.
When I stumbled upon Dooce, Hamilton was married with a baby and a dog named Jack. The site started to get very popular, and Hamilton became a legend, beginning a downward spiral for her.
Between clinical depression, alcohol addiction, divorce, and a flood of hateful comments like none you’ve ever seen before, Hamilton purposely fell into obscurity. She still wrote on Dooce for years but with far less frequency than before.
I had lost touch with Hamilton and Dooce for years, and I was shocked (but not surprised) to find out she had passed on May 9th of this year, taking her own life after falling out of sobriety.
I’m sharing this in honor of Heather because I probably wouldn't be here if it weren’t for her. My love for storytelling came about after reading hers. Hamilton’s style, humor, and nuance made me fall in love with short-form writing, and it started me on a long journey where I now feel like I’ve come full circle.
This edition of The Hungry Artist is dedicated to her as my heart goes out to her family and other loved ones.
The Biggest Mistake I See Artists Make
It usually starts casually as a hobby. You’re painting for fun, drawing for your kids, or making jewelry for friends. Eventually, you build a passion for your creation, and people start noticing. You start sharing your work on Facebook and Instagram, and your friends and followers ask, “Are you selling these?”
You begin to think that maybe you could make a little side cash with your hobby, and the first instinct with most creative people at this moment is to open an Etsy shop because that’s what most believe is the first stop for all things made by hand.
Maybe it’s not Etsy, though. It could be Society6, RedBubble, Fine Art America, Saatchi Art, or others. Given a multitude of choices, the question shouldn’t be which marketplace to choose, but should you even go that route?
One of the biggest mistakes I see creative people make
Art Snack: Daisy Anne Dickson
Going forward, the weekly Art Snack will feature artists who work to disprove the myth of the scarcity mindset among creatives. Nobody here starves. Nobody here shares limiting beliefs. We’re here to learn from those who have learned to thrive.
Daisy Anne Dickson is a multidisciplinary artist based in Duluth, GA. Salvaging discarded, surplus, neglected, or broken materials to repurpose in her work has become a mainstay of her style, and the art is centered around healing and growth.
The decision to change up the scope of Art Snack was based entirely on Daisy Anne’s recent post on Instagram.
“I’m so glad I stopped listening to and internalizing the idea of the starving artist. I stopped limiting myself. I stopped listening to people who aren’t where I want to be!”
We need more mindset like this. If you know someone who fits this model, use the button to drop a comment.
Small Bites
I talk a lot about how creatives should start a newsletter, but how do you even start that process?
Quietly in the background, I’ve been working on a new merch brand, wholly disassociated with anything else I am doing. I’ve tried many other mock-up generators, but I always come back to Placeit*
Do you know how to tell if the photo you’re using as a reference or as part of your design is copyright-free?
If there was ever a proven case for how we never truly own our brand identity, watching MacDonald’s execs being mystified over how to respond to the Grimmace shake trend is a classic example.
I’ve read two books on writing lately. Do NOT buy this one. Instead, THIS one is much better.
This camera has no lens!
Not many of us have holiday homes, but if you have one, it looks like the lobby of a financial institution.
Second Helping
Stories you might have missed
Dessert
This might be the weirdest thing I’ve seen from a TikTok account in a long time… and that’s saying something.