Self Portrait as a Wallflower
The Artist as the Secret World of Self
This is my video to promote my Flower Art but It has been a big flop so far receiving one view and one like on Instagram and Facebook each.
However, when I first shared it on Youtube, it looked like this:
There is no large red arrow indicating that it is a video. In fact, it does not link to the video! Back to the drawing board to get that arrow in place on social media!
I used auto-select to choose the image that displays. The advice is usually that images with faces perform better- just not your face! Today every venue wants a picture of the artist at work or with their work. I do not respond to the pictures of artists with their work. I prefer to see the work by itself and if there is a picture of the artist I prefer that in a context that is about the artist. The artwork is an expression of the secret world of the artist that we all have within us that doesn’t necessarily have another outlet for expression in society, where power politics dominate. The portrait of the artist is a representation of the outer self that all the world sees.
But this is my attempt at following standard advice. I wanted my portrait to vanish into the work because the work is an identification of the self which is far more expansive than the ego identification. Then I added my Artstore website address because I need to be promoting my website so that it will become income-producing.
I wanted the transition from the outer representation of the self to the inner representation to be non-abrupt. Darkening the last image makes my portrait merge into the flower and so the transition to the Portrait of the Artist as a Wallflower follows more gracefully.
It takes time to learn how all the social media venues interact. I discovered that one can create an additional image to display as the video preview so I created one with a Start arrow as shown here and is scheduled to appear on social media after noon today.
I ordered some samples of my work printed up by Bay Photo, one of the Art Storefront printers. I was very pleased with the results which are a perfect match for my colors and tones, what you see is what you get!. The samples will be availble to view at the show. You can order prints in various media and sizes. Imagine a public space filled with large images of The Secret World of Flowers- and more!
Or just imagine the Flowers on the walls in your home- or any of the other images by the other artists represented on My Art Storefront!
I need to make more income and I like creating videos or reels. Reels are much shorter and I will be doing that too. I really like to do the editing and music effects. Give me some raw footage and I will edit it for a reasonable fee!
I just do not particularly like working on mobile phones. When they first came out I resisted them because I didn’t want every minute of my life controlled by technology — but it eventually became impossible to interact in this world without them. I have to learn to embrace the mobile phone! I haven’t worked with moving images, I could move into that area or work with collaborators.
I also need to work on getting views and YouTube subscribers. It takes 500 subscribers to qualify to apply for monetization. I have three but I haven’t been pursuing Youtube as a focus. Now I am getting more interested. So please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel to help me get to 500 subscribers!
