Nuki News #27: Networking & Kindness!

Previous Artie Asks Artists Post:https://www.patreon.com/posts/41173247

We’ve got ourselves a double-feature this week on Artie Asks Artists! And that’s because they feel intrinsically linked! The topics are Networking, and Kindness. An artist needs an audience to make this their living, but as well, a creator who is cold, unkind, and unreceptive to their audience likely won’t have much of one in the first place, let alone keep it. I’ll start with Networking first:

Networking and growing that audience requires putting yourself out there- collaborate on zines or projects. Stream regularly, and post regularly, to keep yourself in people’s minds. 

Often social media has gotten us creatives to believe if we stop posting, or even slow down, we’ll cease to exist in people’s minds. Fortunately the truth is not like that. But posting on a consistent basis is a sure fire way to have people take notice of what you’re up to! It doesn’t even need to be art either. Streaming is a fun thing I’ve been doing with creative pals at least weekly for years now. I’ve found I’ve done streams with over 21 artists and creative furries! We get to expose our audiences to one another, like cross-pollination, and get to build my circle of friends who can relate to me since we’d both be doing art in the fur community. 

Of course, I could be better about my posting habits, and give my audience on Twitter/FurAffinity more notice when my streams will be online. I kind of post art whenever, and try to space out my posts by about 3 days, so I can give myself time to have a backlog of work to post. But with the growth I’ve had over the last few years, being exactly hasn’t been necessary. I also try to jump on projects other furs create in the community. Sometimes they pan out, sometimes they don’t, however they have been great opportunities to meet more artists. Going into doing art full time, I wouldn’t be anywhere if I didn’t reach out to others or join in such projects. 

Kindness and cooperation will sow seeds to a brighter future; in fact, work on cutting down your own bullshit and make sure to give to others if you can. It doesn’t have to be monetary either- advice, an ear, a hand; these things can go a long way.

I can attest to how much kindness has done for me. Especially during a year of hardship for us all, doing what you can to help another person is ultimately helping yourself. I have been learning over the last few years on being a force for good; and it's meant quieting and controlling negative impulses I’ve had, but also learning to receive kindness from others. Appreciating what others have done for me, any sort of gesture of kindness. 

It may surprise you to read, but I used to be a very harsh person! Even if someone did something kind for me, I perhaps wouldn’t have internally cared or shown gratitude for it outside of a thank you. I feel like I don’t have the right words to explain what I mean well for this concept- perhaps think of it like, you’re 6 years old, and you received socks as a present on your birthday from someone at a birthday party, when instead you wanted a slew of other things. Learning to be grateful on the inside for things you receive out of love or care from someone else has been important to me and this facet alone has been what had transformed me from a bitter, angry loner- to a more jubilant and caring friend to people. I’m not perfect of course, and there’s still more BS I need to tackle within myself! Making the effort to do so isn’t easy but will no doubt keep me on a path to do good by most folk I interact with and build relationships that will help me in my life time.