​Why I Like Blogs More Than Instagram

​Why I Like Blogs More Than Instagram

   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.
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 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.