Why does the Internet influence us to commoditize our hobbies and our passions? I have been so guilty of falling under this influence and its time to reign that in. That’s not to say turning your passion into a business is a bad thing. It’s just that the Internet is so crowded with people and companies that are competing for your attention (and money!), that it’s easy to get lost in the dream of creating your business, and not actually doing the work that a business requires.
I tend to fall under this influence when I experience burn out from my nursing job. I have a really bad shift (or week! or month!) and I start fixating over how I can make money from my art. And I get led down these paths like a dog on a leash:
Printful
Printify
Etsy
Gumroad
Woo Commerce.
I start tinkering with each one to figure out the best way to sell art.
I listen to art and creativity podcasts to get inspiration.
I start following successful art people like Alissa Sexton and Patricia Vargas so I can figure out The Formula™, and try to recreate their success.
But all of this tinkering takes away time from actually creating art. Which is supposed to be my joy! My passion! (but also my ticket out of being a full time nurse.) Maybe I’m making the art do too much heavy lifting. Maybe I just need to find a better way to deal with nurse burn out.
Today I’m thinking about radically putting some of these things on a shelf. I’m thinking about what the art muse wants, vs what The Algorithm™ wants. With that in mind, I closed down my Etsy shop. It’s just too clunky of a process to create products that get so little views. It’s one time suck that I can take off the table. I might eventually start tinkering with putting some art prints on this site, but for now I think I’m going to try and do some more actual painting.