Making Things Happen
Online and in the real world
A few months ago, a Japanese restaurant opened up in our village. It was such a surprise to find one in rural France! I quickly became a regular customer/fangirl to an almost embarrassing degree, showing up once or twice a week since they opened.
Around this time, Instagram revealed their plans to help themselves to our posts and comments to train Meta’s AI. Already weary of the platform after 10 years using it, I then followed a rabbit hole researching data privacy, became increasingly disgusted with the enshittification1 of the internet and painfully aware of how heavily I have relied on it to build my career thus far. From graduation onwards, I have been putting my eggs in the same basket, trying to keep up a presence on social media whilst giving little thought to having a physical, offline presence. Something had to change.
I got thinking: the Japanese restaurant had nothing on their walls. I reached out to them (ironically via Instagram), to see if they wanted to sell some paintings of mine, a sort of mini-exhibition, and they said yes!
I had made something happen, something small but tangible that I could see with my own eyes, and it felt amazing. It got me thinking about what other opportunities I could invent for myself locally.
There’s a weekly life drawing class here, and the teacher was going on holiday, so I stepped in to fill his place. I had never taught before, so I was nervous, but I thought about the different classes I had taken over the years and which aspects I liked from each, what my skills were and which topics excited me most. Experiments with colour and materials were high on my list.
I ended up teaching the class for 6 weeks and I really loved it. There is a special kind of satisfaction in explaining something and seeing that you have been understood, or setting just the right exercise that opens up a door for someone. I would come home feeling exhausted but at the same time, full of energy.
Doing things locally makes me feel like my work is less enmeshed with the internet, and so somehow more solid and secure. The fact that I can see the results of my actions is really rewarding. Having felt pretty isolated where I am living, it gives me a way to integrate myself and to feel more at home.
But I don’t think it has to be either-or. For all its flaws, the internet is still an important part of my career and life in general. It allows me to contact and work with clients all over the world no matter where I live; it lets people find me who never would have otherwise; it has helped me to meet people who have become IRL friends.
Recently I started taking an online course at the Royal Drawing School. It’s the school where I spent 3 months last year, and where I’d like to study some more in person, but London is far away and online is the next best option. It’s great to have access to the tutors there, with all their ideas and insights, from the comfort of my studio.
The course I have chosen is called Observation and Imagination, and it aims to bridge the gap between the two. Personally I feel much more comfortable drawing from observation, so I’m hoping to challenge myself and expand my way of working.
A course like this has a very different atmosphere to a social media feed. I still think both are worth doing for now, but I am trying to think about prioritising the more meaningful connections and experiences that can be had online. Writing here, for example. Maybe running some online workshops/classes. Moving Instagram DM friendships into a new setting (texting instead, video chats, etc). Finding and emailing illustration clients myself rather than waiting for them to come to me.
On that topic: I recently got a commission from a dream client. They were replying to a cold email I sent 2 years ago and had never heard back from, but they had kept me on file. It was a good reminder of how important sowing those seeds can be.
Finally, I’ve been thinking about how the online and offline can overlap. For a while now I have been making a conscious effort to buy books, zines and prints from artists I like, in order to form a deeper relationship with their work and to make it a part of my physical world. I like it, I think it is worthwhile and I think I will start selling my own things online again soon.
I also want to continue to meet up in person with friends I meet online, by organising things directly and by going to events outside of Normandy. As such, I am going to Grafixx festival in Antwerp this November with my friend Zara, who I’ve been speaking to online for the past 3 years! I’m also planning to meet up with Roman Muradov there (by the way, he has a Substack too and it’s one of my favourites). If you are going too, let me know!
Till next time,
a term coined in 2022 but which I only just learned and am currently still in the honeymoon phase with, used to describe the downhill trajectory of online platforms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification
Oh I love all your newsletters so much! And feel this IRL vs. online tension so deeply. Congrats on the Riverford gig—your illustrations for them turned out beautifully!
Congrats on the exhibition! Doing things in the local community is the best 😊 I love that third sketch you posted with the colours, was that a 3 minute one as well?!