It’s like taking the last step off the cliff. Hesitation pervades everything else. It is not easy, but it is enthralling. In a pervasive trance, you look to the right and to the left…

…and jump.

This mighttt sound like bungee jumping … orr cliff diving. But it’s not. It is the moment before a post goes up on any kind of online platform. The terror and the sheer anticipation are equivalent to jumping off a mountain. With or without a ram-air parachute.

Now, let me bring you back safely down to the ground and re-affirm that we’re not flying or jumping off anything. This is merely a sensory representation of what I feel before a post goes up, which I’m sure is not an isolated experience.

There is an enormous pressure that artists face before putting anything out there. “Will it be good; will it be liked?” “Will people have opinions on my choice of words, colours or patterns?” “Why is red better than blue?” There is no correct answer to any of this.

I put work out there because it just needs to go out. If anyone reads it or not is almost a tertiary, if not septenary concern.

This separation is difficult. No doubt.

I will not drub the other extreme either. Over sharing is what the algorithm gods want. So let them have it. No judgement.

First comes the angst of what to post and where. These are questions I never thought I’d ask myself and do not have an answer to. ‘How do I cater to the various social media platforms while trying to stay true to myself?’

Maybe an hour or two passes pondering the possibilities, with no real conclusion reached.

The actual work is seamless most of the time. However, the real drudgery begins after the work is out, or rendered, or published.

Now what?

3 views? Really? Goddamit.

I tried so hard. Actually, no I didn’t. I just slightly organized my thoughts and put it out there. By there I mean the vast inter web connecting us all. Someone somewhere validated it, for which I’m grateful. Largely, most people don’t and that’s okay. In an increasingly decentralized business model of art. If you’re not path breaking. You are no one. As ‘no one’ you can most definitely choose quantity over quality, that is completely ok. We are all just a spool of thread in the greater tapestry. Asserting our purpose to ourselves…

…and that’s about it.