My Promise to You

Sometimes I think I’m moralistic to a fault.

I recently saw something that made my stomach turn and realized what I never wanted to do when launching or running my business.

Confusing times, indeed

Sometimes, you read something on the internet and think to yourself “Surely, that cannot be true”. In this day and age of AI, that seems to be the case all too often. Rather than steering your grandparents clear from a scam run through the telephone, you end up in fights with friends and family over a breakdancing baby. This blog post isn’t bashing AI. While the use of AI in the broad social media market is anywhere from interesting to disturbing, it’s not what I’m getting on a pedestal for today. No, I want to talk about the choices we make.

No Slimy / Shady Marketing Practices Here

Ok, so let’s serve the tea.

The other day, I saw an artist on social media post a cringey thing. And I don’t mean stuff like the content that @theslappablejerk makes. I cringed hard because it was painful to see an artist caught in a lie, trying to make a sale.

Let’s rewind – I had seen this artist post before with the basic message of “no one wants my art, please share so I don’t have to close shop”. Nothing wrong with that, although it leaned a little too heavily into the former, which felt like fishing for compliments. Again, not my favorite thing ever, but not worth my time thinking about it.

Fast forward to the other day, I see this artist emerge again. Before we move on, I just want to say that their artwork is genuinely cool. Like, really well done and aesthetically pleasing. I would totally buy from this artist. Which is why I think this feeling has stuck with me.

In this new post, they call out some person in their comments section for being cruel. This has been trending, where people call out their haters. No big deal, but the person in the comments was suspiciously cruel.

As any sane (read: nosy) person would, I immediately went to the comment section to see what other people thought. Guess who has the first / top comment? The cruel commenter. Other commenters speculate that it must be an ex and others came to the defense of the artist, serving cruelty back to the cruel commenter.

As a semi-professional lurker, the next natural step was to look at the cruel commenter’s profile. And I’m sure you’ve guessed it at this point – FAKE. Do I know for absolute certain? No, but there suspiciously no photos and other key indicators that the profile was clearly fake. I’m convinced I’m right (otherwise why make a fuss, right?) I was mildly validated by other commenters calling out the fake profile, too.

The feeling I ended up with was ick mixed with sadness. Friends, all the artists I know would never stoop so low because they value their trade and their talent (as they should!).

Let’s be clear as day

In my day job, I’m in marketing. I do the research and see the trends. One thing I promise to never do, though, is intentionally deceive you.

When you purchase art from me, I want you to feel excited to own my original art, I want the process to feel seamless, and I want you to feel confident in the craftsmanship you receive- the kind that only a human dedicated to their craft can make.

The human touch, human connection cannot be lost, especially in these times. I promise to be human – to feel unapologetically and to do my best to build relationships.

That’s what the nest is about.

Sure, I want you to buy my art, too. But it’s more than that.

If every artwork has a story, the story is not finished when I put the varnish on. The story builds as it travels, as it is hung, as it changes owners, as it lives itself. And I’d love to continue to hear about it, to see how the story develops.

And for those who are lost in my simile, that’s ok – you can identify as a baby bird in the nest, a twig, or as an odd rock.

No matter what, though, you belong.