So you’ve probably noticed I haven't really been here much lately… And by lately I mean hardly ever in the last 2 years… yeah..sorry about that ... 😶
I guess in all reality I just got much busier than I was when I had first started my blog and YouTube channel, and to be honest a bit overwhelmed and demotivated....
While I've been oil painting for two decades, I really only started taking the possibility of a real career in art seriously soon after I moved to Hawai’i. And because it was so darn expensive to live out there, I could never afford to really travel or go off island so having a weekly blog post and video, monthly newsletters, constant tutorials etc. was not as hard to keep up with. But ever since moving back to the mainland and starting to teach college, the reality set in that I couldn't afford to do all of those things for such low financial return at the end of the day. Not that I didn't make some money off of YouTube and working with clients that YouTube brought, but I've never been a huge creator on that platform so it was never even close to what I needed to live on comfortably.
About two years ago I realized that I had spent a few years certainly learning a lot via my channel, and very happily helping other people, but at the expense of my own art making and really pushing myself to sell my artwork, rather than just selling my knowledge about creating art. Like I was making sure to have a YouTube video (usually a tutorial) out every single week to please the algorithm, but I was not setting aside the same amount of time or personal demands to create high-quality art every single week. I started out wanting a career as an artist so I could make art, and before I knew it I was spending 80% of my art time behind a screen in one way or another, whether it was filming, editing, writing, posting, marketing... the list goes on and on.
I also had originally wanted to have a successful YouTube channel, as any creator does when they first start out, but after I had seen so many videos of other creators getting burnt out, started feeling it myself, and realizing that I like my freedom too much to be beholden to an algorithm that I must please multiple times a week.. every week.. forever. Even folks that run daily shows on television like news anchors or late night hosts take off sometimes weeks at a time… So for YouTube to abandon channels when they've only been off for a week or two is obscene. I'm a human being and I refuse to live my life trying to please computers anymore.
I love to block print on vintage kerchiefs with my whimsical little carved blocks. Isn’t the lace divine?
Not to mention the fact that although I am deeply grateful for every single person who's ever paid attention to my artwork online, sincerely, I felt like it wasn't fulfilling me the same way that selling a piece of artwork or interacting with folks at an art show I was presenting at did, as had been the norm in my early 20s before social media took over the world.
This last year having my craft booth that includes a few oil paintings has been so exhilarating and fulfilling, not to mention that I am selling more original art on a regular basis than I ever have before. Interacting with people in person, hearing feedback, and genuinely getting excited to produce work in my style that people really want to buy, rather than only making work for myself and then crossing my fingers that it resonates for someone else too. I'm not there yet, but I feel confident that I'm moving towards a much more secure place within my art practice.
All this being said, it was never my intention to completely abandon this website or blog or my YouTube channel. I just needed some space and some real human interaction to help me remember why I was doing all of this to begin with.
So my goal going forth is to do one to two blog posts per month and one YouTube video every 6 to 8 weeks. I am not going to be doing any extra finagling to try to please algorithms, I am only going to post genuinely what I truly feel is worth sharing and what is worth my time to create. Instagram is one place that I tend to stay relatively active, so if you're on it reach out and let me know you came to see me there from this blog post, I'd love to say hi! @caleighbirdart
Oh and by the way, I started an entirely new block printing business 😳 It's going great!! Here's the new website I just created if you wanna check it out, but since this post is already long enough I'll go into more detail about it here soon.
I really do appreciate all of you who have stuck around through this quieter time, and want to send a warm welcome to the new folks that I've seen signing up even in the months when I was inactive. I want to be here for you just as you are for me, so thank you kindly 🫶
2.11.2025