Writing More
I like to work in a bunch of different mediums. Sometimes creative people think they should be good at ALL the mediums or good in any creative field. I know so many graphic designers that think they are really good interior designers, but most are not. I try to be honest with myself and know I might never be good at things like landscape design, but it’s frustrating with the little things. Like I can’t even come up a creative Halloween costume or design my desk not to be a complete disaster.
Writing is a medium that I have a lot of trouble with. I feel I should be much better at it than I am. I have even been paid to do it in the past. Still, I have let writing fall by the wayside. To get over this, I’m going to start writing a lot more. This post is the first, and hopefully not last, in writings on my process, chats with other creative folks that have bought Putnam Studio stuff, and maybe some more experimental things… I’m not actually sure what “experimental” means. I think it is just me being insecure about trying to seem interesting and artistic ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It’s weird to think someone actually paid me to write, but it happened! It started with a blog I created way back in 2008 called Vectips.
2008 feels like a loooooong time ago. Now that I think about it, I work with people that were in elementary school in 2008 X_X. Anyway, Vectips is a site dedicated to Adobe Illustrator tips, tricks, and tutorials. It was fairly popular and I made some money from it by selling ads. I eventually sold it in 2013 but during that time I was paid to write for other Illustrator blogs like VectorTuts. It also landed me a writing gig as a contributor to the book series Adobe Illustrator Wow! by Sharon Steuer.
These gigs were mostly technical writing and I got pretty efficient at writing tutorials but I want to get away from that. I don’t what to teach people how to create the things I make. There are a lot of awesome teachers and folks already doing that. I want to write more about my process and really get at why I do the things I do. It’s slightly narcissistic but I think others might find it interesting too. I love reading the thinking artist go through like in the Keith Haring Journals.
This push to write more, was also inspired by the many talks my friend Ash and I have had over the years. We both lamented the passing prominence of blogs only to give way to networks like Instagram and TikTok. Don’t get me wrong, these networks have their place and are a component of my business, but we pine for an unfiltered feed of creative folks writing interesting things. We made a little project called BringBack.Blog to get us back into blogging. We are not sure yet where this is going, but it’s nice to see so many folks excited about blogging again!
Are excited to read about my process, read interviews, and other “experimental” content? Also, let me know if you have an interesting story or creative career. I would love to hear your story and how you use the art and ceramics I sell.
