It was around 2020 when I started blogging in earnest. Due to the pandemic, I was unable to participate in the offline exhibition, and the scope of my activities gradually narrowed. In the past, I could meet people in person and talk about my paintings and activities, but after the pandemic, this kind of life became impossible for several years. Listening to the gloomy news reported every day, I hoped that the time to display and sell paintings would return.

Then I got the courage to start a blog. Living as an artist who has to reveal and express myself due to my personality is a tough job in itself, but I had to open up and write my story. So for a long time, blogs were not on my wish list. Then, I decided to start a blog. And I started to write down my feelings, collected information, experiences, and concerns about art one by one.

Blogging eventually became another ritual for me. At some point, like addicted coffee, it awakened me and allowed me to run further into my work with a beating heart.
Above all, as an artist, I have to continuously express and find meaning, so blogging has improved my expressiveness through daily writing. Because of this, I once again realized the importance of combining painting and writing together.

Then, I started Instagram. Instagram was also stagnant at the level of posting only a few pictures in the early days. Probably no one but my family has seen my Instagram.

However, I feel the power of Instagram by uploading recently written children's books on Instagram and occasionally uploading pictures. In particular, I met the daughter of a former German friend through Instagram.

  A girl named Femi has become a great illustrator now. She showed a recent picture of her that she had drawn. In my long-ago memory, Femi was a child who was very interested in drawing. I remembered the twinkle in her eyes every time she looked at the picture. Looking back, it was a wonderful relationship. In this respect, Instagram has been a beneficial tool to bridge the past and the present.

 But I know the positive effect of Instagram, but I haven't escaped the charm of blogging yet. You know that Instagram is a fancy ballroom where you meet a lot of people and if you're dressed up and standing on stage, someone's looking at you, but I still like blogging.

 The blog is like my house where I can eat popcorn while wearing pajamas. You don't have to dress up, you don't have to try to look good. But this space is completely yours.

 External visitors visit my site as guests. I want my visitors to rest in my home as much as possible and see something comforting and hopeful. I want you to know that art, as if you are looking at me solemnly from a high place, is as comfortable as eating popcorn at home. So, I blog with this kind of heart as if I were writing a diary every day.

 In fact, blogging does not give me much financial benefit in terms of self-expression, writing, literacy, and information gathering. Still, I blog. Another reason is that my freelance style job is managed to some extent through blogging.

It seems that there is no better tool than a blog to record the life of a freelance artist, which is easily distracted in everyday life, and to give one's own motivation and move forward with momentum.

​ That's why I prefer blogging over Instagram.

 However, blogging is energy-consuming and requires a lot of patience. Instagram can appeal with short sentences focused on images, but blogs should create sentences of 1,000 words or more. You have to post such sentences every day and the quality has to be reached to high level.

 And since it is not a system that runs on a platform with a prominent recognition like Instagram or Meta, no matter how much you build a huge tower with your own efforts in your own space, people will not know. Until the tower rises to a certain height and people start recognizing it beyond the fence, people do not know what they are doing inside it. In short, self-marketing and self-promotion need to keep your blog. If it doesn't become a standout blog, it really is a well-organized diary online. Of course, I think the function as a diary is also important.

  But in another sense, I prefer a world with many blogs. For example, I recently published two children's books. And with someone's recommendation, I tried to submit it to the publisher. As always, everywhere, there is an arena of surprisingly fierce competition. It was a fierce and fierce fight because it was a battle of only letters without smell or color. In the case of some publishers, they did not receive the submission itself. There were too many submissions in some places, so it was impossible to report the results individually. If there was no contact after 6 months, it was written that it was unsuccessful.

  ​In a word, numerous creations can not come out into the world and become a slush pile in a huge amount of competition.

 In this case, the blog is like a savior. Once in my space, I can freely upload my creations. There is no competition from anyone here, only my work.
​
 So a blog may look like a diary to someone, but it can be a good window for artists to share their work with the world. As an artist, I appreciate having a blog where I can post my creations and communicate with the world.

 ​So, even though it is my blog where I have to post short articles due to lack of time, I plan to continue posting my work and writing down my activities through the blog.

 If you run a blog, you are more likely to receive various types of emails from your email. Sometimes you may receive a letter of encouragement, a good opportunity, or information. But how nice would it be if the world were just that fancy?  In a jungle-like world, bloggers also have a chance of being scammed, in a nutshell. Some time ago, I wrote a post about scams artists can get.

This is an artist scam email I received the other day.
Go to the related post!

 I would like to share this information whenever possible. Because sometimes it is easy for beginner painters who have just come out of the world to fall for these fake suggestions.

There are many artists who want to work for companies, especially as web designers and graphic designers. Such artists often post resumes or portfolios on sites such as Indeed, Linkedin, and Google to search for jobs.

But before that, of course, there are some things you should know.

 For example, artists have fake open calls that look real, and nonexistent competitions. And there's even a Vanity Gallery. In most cases, this is not an organization or gallery that helps artists work, but rather an organization that targets artists' pockets.

There are many cases of disappointing artists who give up the path to earn more money to paint and sincerely pursue invisible art.

In particular, you should check a few important clues before starting your job search activities. The site below provides more detailed information.

Scam alert: the company is real, but the job offer is fake​

And personally, in my summary,

first. It's rare to see a big reward for a little effort. For example, the HR team of a company that I did not apply for suddenly contacted me and congratulated me. You should be careful if the salary is not the minimum wage, but an absurdly high amount first.

second. Even if they don't or don't identify their employer exactly, be careful if the email sent by HR is Gmail. This means they don't come in through official channels. 

• If the “from” email address has a URL different from the legitimate company’s, delete the message.

Third. Be very careful if you feel like they are constantly asking for your personal information without giving you time to think, or if they try to let you give your bank account information. Usually I open an account number only when it has been verified through a very strict procedure. Checks also need to be careful. (In a word, I want to know more about the work, but the other party is more likely to be a scam if he focuses more on checking. Vanity publishing is also a scam if they don't care about the content and focus on payment and provide information. In the case of a decent publisher, you can deposit money (through PayPal, etc.) and you can track the results and see them at your own time.)

fourth. Be wary of looking overly fancy. Everything takes a lot of effort. After a lot of effort, it is normal that there is a price that most of these efforts will not be recognized. Even so, it is a healthier life to self-evaluate the value of my efforts and to live with self-encouragement. This is also my philosophy.

Finally fifth. speed. If you feel like you're in a hurry with anything going fast, be careful.
To sum up, there is no other know-how about scams. It's good to trust even the smallest of your own intuition. Of course, there are people who do the right job search and recruitment activities. Rather, these types of people do not get annoyed with questions from job seekers and artists, and explain step by step without haste.

In order to survive as an artist in the Internet world in the sea of information, I hope you overcome the obstacle of scam and sail into the wide sea today.

  ​Can I realistically make a living doing what I love? How do you find out what you like? We all know how important it is to do what we love, and we hear it all too often.

  ​When you actually do what you love, you make good physical changes. Spending time doing things you love relieves stress and lifts your mood. This lively look and positive attitude can help you expand your social circle, as it's always full of endorphins and lively. It reduces stress-causing hormones and may help manage chronic pain. It can also improve heart health and improve quality of life.

  ​In other words, in order to be good at something, you have to like it. This can be summed up in 4 words, “Do what you love” But just talking to people like that is not enough. ‘Doing what you love. (Doing what you love)' is much more complicated.

  First, you are likely to hit a realistic wall. You may have to choose the next best option, not always the best, because you have to make a living right away. If you have to sacrifice the people around you and the resources around you to make your dreams come true, the problem will be even more complicated.  

  ​If so, is it possible to find work that one likes without feeling guilty while minimizing sacrifice without noticing the people around him?

  ​If you are struggling to find your way in this best state, you are very lucky. That's because there are many people in the world who preach and shout to do what they love, but there aren't many people who can tell the truth about their situation. And to be honest, those who preach like that must have been very lucky. It's closer to the truth that most mediocrity people run into the countless walls of reality and have to compromise with reality or keep walking and feeling limited and desperate.

  ​But why not even try to do what you love because it's difficult, difficult, realistically impossible, and you have to sacrifice a lot? That's not the case. Knowing all these realities, but facing the reality that there are many people walking even with a sigh, you can start with a lighter mind.

  ​Because doing what you love can also require a lot of patience. If you want to do something you love and want to achieve, you should start right now. But one thing you should know. This requires time of patience under the immeasurable weight. And since the period of perseverance varies greatly from person to person, there is no way to know when tangible results will appear or whether compensation will be given to me for choosing this path. Nevertheless, there must be an absolute and inevitable reason to go that route.

  ​Finding a job you love is very easy once you know and answer below questions:

 1. What kind of work makes my heart beat strongly?

 2. What kind of work did you feel most like yourself?

 3. What was the least excuse for making a mistake?

 4. What gives you the clear feeling you get as if you drink coffee early in the morning in a drowsy state?

 5. What kind of work did you make the whole world look beautiful as if you were in love?

 6. What has comforted you in your long loneliness and pain?

 7. Do you think something is worth doing even if it makes less money?

​ 8. When you were doing something, did you not have to compare yourself to others at least for that job?

 9. What have you been doing for a long time overcoming boredom?

​ 10. What have you been doing without expecting compliments or rewards from others?

  ​The answer to the question just above is exactly what you want and like. And you can start working on it right away. But I already know. The fact that you are still doing the work that answered the question above. All you need to do is have more courage, believe in yourself, and keep going that way without doubting your convictions.

 ​I would like to compare a person running towards a dream to a horse. Horses have round, large eyes located on both edges of their faces, so they can see without moving their heads, with a very wide range of about 350 degrees. This makes it easy to see objects approaching from behind without having to turn your head. Conversely, these characteristics make them very easily distracted. Therefore, to train a horse as a racehorse, adjust the blindfold to focus in one direction.

  ​The eye mask is to partially block the view from the back and sides by attaching a cup-shaped leather or rubber material to the back of both eyes of the mask. Therefore, even if another horse follows from behind or from the side, it has the effect of making it invisible so that it can only see the front without anxiety. Adjust the size of the cup attached to the eye mask according to the level of fear or anxiety expressed by the horse.

  ​To do what you love, you have to attach something like a horse's blindfold and run. If possible, it is recommended to peek into other people's lives as often as possible and not lose their energy and envy. It is recommended that you focus only on yourself and build up your inner assets so that you can run on the road you want to run.

  ​This will allow you to focus on running for quite some time, long distances.

  ​Doing what you love is exciting. But it's easy to overlook the patience and pain that it entails. This is why it seems like we all started from the same starting line, but some keep running, some give up after running, and some don't even dare to start. It is better to recognize these difficulties from the start and run. Understanding the reality as it is and running hard at the risk of running without any reward.

   ​I, too, have chosen what I love, and I continue to do it, and I continue to walk with discouragement, anxiety, and doubts. Sometimes the road is not visible at all. Apparently, I was on this road, so I walked, but as I walked, there was no road. There are even times when you bring a shovel and dig the soil yourself to make a path.

  The blog is what always gives me strength, motivation, and energy in times like these. Once you have decided what you like, it is very helpful to open a blog right away and write it down little by little. It has the same effect as renewing the promises you made to yourself every day.  

  ​And you will feel that the world you are thinking and creating becomes more concrete and deeper. I want to share the joy of doing what I love, documenting the process, and growing day by day. 

Reference: ​https://thrive.kaiserpermanente.org/thrive-together/live-well/health-benefits-of-doing-what-you-love