{"id":1611,"date":"2008-04-04T20:56:49","date_gmt":"2008-04-04T18:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/04\/artist-blog-versus-the-work-itself\/"},"modified":"2008-04-04T20:57:36","modified_gmt":"2008-04-04T18:57:36","slug":"artist-blog-versus-the-work-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/04\/artist-blog-versus-the-work-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist-Blog versus The-Work-Itself"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Every artist should have a website, or at least a blog. This is a point I’ve been making to a friend of mine who’s trying to make her creative way in New York City. She’s doing this and that, meeting with little successes here and there, but it isn’t quite adding up to something whole yet. If she had a website, I argue, it could help people see her body of work. Plus, it would help her be accountable to herself and other artists. The web helps artists keep going in more ways than mere self-promotion.<\/p>\n

That said, a tension will develop between your site and your work, especially if you blog.<\/strong> Copyblogger<\/a> says that he developed the blog not to become a pro-blogger, but because he saw it as a way to become better known in the circles where he does his real work. I think that’s right. If you’re a good sculptor, you should start a blog so that people are interested in sculpture will find out more about your work, your thoughts and your creative process. The hope being that some of those folks are interested enough to buy and they will.<\/p>\n

The trouble is, you still have to keep up the blog<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As I’ve been working on my Earth Day Card<\/a>, I’ve been spending much less time in front of the computer. This has become a sort of guilt inside me, that I’m not generating some semi-interesting new essay every day for folks to read or find or think about. I’ve started to feel a responsibility to the netizens. Once upon a time, I would go to bed proud and content if I’d gone to the gym and spent two hours at the drawing board after a workday. Now, I feel like something is undone if I don’t write something here.<\/strong> Like I didn’t brush my teeth. Or I didn’t make my bed.<\/p>\n

Okay, I never make my bed.<\/em><\/p>\n

So I thought about this tension, and came up with some mental strategies the artist-who-blogs can use to make sure the blog serves you and you aren’t serving the blog:<\/p>\n