BOLD ARTIST PODCAST
EP.34

Did you know there's a New Social Media for Artists?

Artist, it's time to stop scrolling and start creating.

Social media use to be awesome. We artists could connect with old friends, make new friends and of course make our work known.

But we've 'been there' and 'done that' now.

Social media still provides a certain kind of community-like space that certainly does fullfull some needs but instead of being an intimate gathering it's more like we're meeting up in Times Square with a million other people and distractions. 

Is your story on socials kind of like mine?

• You go on there to post something new you're working on
• You scroll to get inspired by other artists you follow or see what friends are doing
• You scroll some more
• You read 3 tips for getting more out of your time
• You see reels of a favorite artist and it looks like they are making new art every day!
• (you're definitely NOT making new art every day)
• Then you see some nasty art (we won't go into detail) and hope your kids don't walk by
• (scroll faster)
• You realize you just spent a lot of time reading time saving tips and watching other artists make amazing art. 
• You didn't connect with anyone
• You didn't comment on anything
• And you only liked a few things in hopes the algorithm would read your actions and show you more work you like. 

Socials platforms change fast these days. It's hard to keep up with the changes for your own scrolling pleasure and feels impossible to post work with the right hashtags so it'll get seen.

I mean, are hashtags even a thing anymore? Seriously, I need to know. 

I've now wasted an hour, didn't connect with anyone and completely forgot to post something. 

What do I, an artist, even want from social media these days?

As much as we love to hate social media we always come back. 

Why? What is still so good about it?

We still want to connect, to be inspired and to find people who can help answer questions and help us on our own journey's. 

5 Things We Don't Need On Social Media:

01 The Distractions
02 Wasted time
03 Exposure to nasty content
04 Disappointment
05 Depression (caused by #4)

Community is The New Social Media 

There is so much about social media which is still good.  Us artists still want amazing places to connect, to be inspired, and to find other artists who can help answer our questions.

There is a new space that has kind of been kept a little secret. Not because we don't want anyone to know but because we're too busy hanging out in the new space and we haven't really been talking about it enough yet.

The New Space: Private Online Communities.

They are the new social media. And they offer all the things which originally caused users to fall in love with the old social media in the first place. 

New private online communities are more focused and are full of like-minded people. As artists especially, these communities allow us to share and grow. 

These private online communities are the new social media, they are the places where artists connect on a more intimate, more like-minded, and supportive level. And they are hidden all over the internet. 

New Social Media Features

01 Home away from home: You know exactly what you are going to see when you log in. For example, with the online art school, Bold School, you know that when you log in you will see art. "It's artists growing," says Bold School Operations Manager, Marijanel Knight,  "It's those friendly faces of people that you're getting to know in that safe space. And so it becomes like a home away from home. And I know that when I open the app and click in, I know what I'm going to be encountering there."

02 Take Your Time: There's no rush or pressure to know and be known. If you choose, you can simply be an observer after joining. You can also find support for really specific issues. There are new communities dedicated to health, to parenting, to spiritual needs, relationships, and much more.  People no longer must be part of the big, mainstream social media companies if they want support in their lives.

It is possible to find private online spaces where people can support you and help guide you, where people have knowledge and wisdom to share, and where you can support others who need to hear what you have to share. 

The New Social Media: Community at Bold School

What to expect at Bold School's New Social Media Community 

Bold School is online on-demand art school. Bold School classes are where artists are taught specific skills, techniques, and processes, and create specific paintings with teachers and mentors.

The community is the bridge that takes artists from what they have learned in the classes to the results they want to see in their artwork. 

What You'll Find For You in the Bold Community: 

• The artist's unique journey. There is freedom at Bold School to choose various mediums or subject matters -- or future directions. There is support as we talk about your unique journey and where you are headed.
• Finding Your 'Why.'  (which is a workshop topic). Being part of the community is like finding your focus, your why for being in the studio. Knowing your why as an artist helps prevent going down rabbit holes with your work and with your art. We talk about these kinds of things in our workshops. 
• Workshops: teachers and mentors are focusing on answering the most asked concepts and questions of students which aren't necessarily talked about in the classes. While the classes are about skills, the workshops talk about the heart matters and even the business of art. 

• Mentorship: The Bold School Community began as a place for instructors to mentor their students in specific class work. It's a focused  and exclusive space so that if you need help with those specific skills, you get them through the mentorship of our instructors.

• Challenges: We have a doodle-a-day challenge, for example, so that we can practice our subject matter. 
• Collaborations : Challenging artists to work together.
• Meetups. Now that the world's opening up about actual physical meetups, where we can get together in real life. 
• Art Club: where challenges are held for members to take class work to new levels

• Book Club: We read a book together each month and sometimes create challenges and workshops around the learnings. 

Artists Crave Relationship

We're human and contrary to popular belief we need relationship in their lives. We need them in the physical world but it's also possible to find them in this new virtual world.

I love working alone in my studio but I also love to be surrounded by 'my people', you know them, the weird, often introverted people like me who know the intricacies and thought patterns and habits of artists. 

Virtual spaces like social media are great places to connect and share your work. But to be nurtured as an artist, to grow in real tangible ways, a private community like the Bold School Community is perfect. And it allows you to be supported by people like you from all over the world! 

In the real world, finding another bold color artist in your vicinity can be difficult. The beauty of Bold School's online community space, artists meet up with other like-minded artists. Bold School artists embrace the message that artists need to be courageous and take their unique message to the world with their art. 

Bold School continues this conversation on Episode 34 of the Bold Artist Podcast. Come join the conversation. 

Want to learn about how to get inside the Bold School Community? Follow this link >>

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Content curated by Charla Maarschalk, Marijanel Knight and Leigh MacFarlene.