CherylAnnHillsArtist

 Does social media have a reset button? Maybe a factory reset?? I unwittingly participated in a self-experiment this week; I spent way way too much time consuming content on social media. My profile is found on just three, Insta, FB and YT. The bird one I see as being a bit to confrontational for my tastes, at least that’s my impression so I'm not on there. Oh yeah and the clock one, I use that one too. Speaking of impressions; does anyone really know what that means? After 7 days of scrolling, swiping, streaming and clicking over 5hrs a day on social I’ve noticed a few things.   A lot of people speak really really fast. Sometimes being selective about the words you use, slowing down and expressing personal emotion are more effective at telling a story. Or maybe its just me. I like things simple. Right?   I hate sales, selling and having someone sell or be salesy to me. Yuck. Its just icky to me. Could be just me feels this way. IDK   The social accounts I am m...

People who share your values are part of your tribe. As a creative, these people are your true audience. I read Seth Godin, Brene Brown, Simon Sinek and Malcolm Gladwell and their wisdom has certainly helped me to streamline my thinking and therefore my actions in my art business. In thinking about my true values I came across an article by Brene Brown It lists human values and prompts the reader to choose only two, just two that we hold as most important. I’d first selected authenticity and integrity, but then after researching those found that if one has integrity its not possible to be so, without authenticity. So now I have Integrity and Courage as my most important core values. Are you surprised that Creativity isn’t on my list of two? Well, it is because creativity requires courage, lots of it. So, its there, its just contextual. I believe all humans have equal value – with equal rights regardless of culture, language, gender, age, income or whatever other “category” human...

Nobody starts making art because they think it will be a great way to earn a living. Many start creating as young children. Being a Gen-Xer, traditional gifts I received as a child were colouring books and crayons, pencil crayons and sometimes watercolour paints. Once we started school we were often introduced to other materials, glue, scissors, construction paper, and finger painting.   Some of us embraced the opportunity to express ourselves and were deeply invested in our artwork even at a young age. For me, it was a means of expressing my feelings. I was (still am) painfully shy. Very unsure of my place in the world. My time spent painting and listening to my favourite albums in my room growing up were happy times for me. I was lucky to find joy in an activity at such an early age. And even though my life’s journey was not a straight path I am equally fortunate to have found my way back to that early joy now as an adult. As a child, I’d never considered that my artwork co...