I archived all my posts since 2015 on my Instagram art page, And here’s why...
I’ve been sharing my art on Instagram for 7 years and recently I made the decision to archive nearly every post.
It went from this…
To this…
It’s not that I didn’t care about all those posts.
I worked extremely hard on both the artwork and the content.
I valued the relationships and connections I’d made over the years.
I felt very attached to the account itself, as so much of me had gone into it.
So why did I do it?
Well, for a long time I had felt a disconnect with the work. I was ready I move on from papercutting. I wanted to do new things and explore new art forms. It was also very ‘aesthetic’ which meant leaving out lots of work I was doing (community arts, teaching etc) and many aspects of my creativity (costume making, toy making, writing, dancing, all sorts!).
But being a sensitive person I felt really scared of changing things.
What if no one liked the ‘real’ messy, multi-passionate, always-on-to-the-next-project version of me?
The fear of being rejected and criticised left me stuck, doing things I didn’t really want to because maintaining that image was easier then being honest with myself about what I really felt.
Through coaching I began to see what I really valued and compare that with what was happening on Instagram.
My actions didn’t align with my values at all.
How does this connect with being a highly sensitive?
Well many of us struggle to even know what we want or enjoy, because for so long we’ve suppressed our responses to things to be accepted.
We don’t trust ourselves to make the right choices. And when something does go wrong we are more likely to see it as our own ‘fault’ rather then a experiment that didn’t work out!
One question sensitive creatives often forget to ask themselves is:
What do I want from this?
So for example, I identified I like sharing process over final products, and I like making videos because the editing process is fun and creative for me.
I wanted to share my experience of working as a multi-passionte artist and educator, because that reflected my actual life over an imagined ‘internet acceptable’ version.
So that’s what I did and now I’m having so much more fun!
Making big changes in your creative business is scary, but so is carrying on doing something that feels really wrong for you. So I’m sharing this recent example of how coaching has helped me to find what is the right path for my creativity.
To give context I am:
a) not a marketing expert
b) not dependent on my Instagram for my business (it’s only ever brought in a tiny fraction of my income) and
c) not suggesting this would be right for you!
But it does represent a journey I’ve been on to choose things that are right for me.
AND I believe that’s a really empowering thing to help other sensitive creatives find for themselves!
So to help you on that journey I’ve made a simple worksheet you can use to identify your own values, and then compare them with your experiences on social media.
I hope it is helpful for you!
If you’d like 1:1 support to identify your values, how they relate to your creative practice and what approaches will work for you to do both then you can learn more over on my creativity coaching page!