STARTED: MARCH 4, 2024
LAST UPDATED: APRIL 7, 2024
What originally started as a “chronofile” morphed to an “artist log” and then a digital garden or “compost heap.”
Here’s how that process evolved.
First, I wrote about my note taking practice and idea to start a microblog called a chronofile here.
MARCH 4, 2024
This experiment is a effort in developing my own note taking process. I wrote a bit about it here. Since I’ve started using Obsidian I’ve been creating daily notes. What I’m experimenting with is starting each week with re-reading those notes and curating the bits I want to keep and share in a forward facing commonplace book.
I’ve been documenting and sharing in some form or another for almost 10 years. What I want is to find a sustainable way to do this that lives on my own website and doesn’t rely on a third party (like Substack, Patreon, Tumblr, or IG.)
Some weeks may be lengthy and others may be short.
March 9, 2024
I’m attempting to recenter my creative practice.
If this feels cyclical that’s because it is.
My creative orbit spiralling closer and closer to something that’s right for me.
When throwing pottery on the wheel you have to center it first.
The pot builds around the center of mass and if that isn’t the center of the wheel you get a wonky pot. I’m actually not very good at centering clay, but we won’t dwell on this. I haven’t been able to throw pottery since Davy was born due to chronic pain.
That’s the last time I tried to throw a pot. My hands should be controlling the clay not the other way around. I also have a connective tissue disorder that makes this extremely difficult. (I really need one of these.)
The same thing can happen when artists share our work online.
WHEN THE PLATFORM COMES FIRST EVERYTHING IS OFF BALANCE.
Something still feels “off” about creating for Substack. Over the last 10-15 years I’ve seen platforms come and go. The places that we gather and connect online change and immigrate. The more I think about this the more I want an archive of my writing on my own website.
At the same time, I value the community and comments I find on platforms like Substack. With that in mind I am experimenting with writing for my own blog and cross posting to Substack. (For technical reasons it works MUCH better this way than the other way around. But it’s also a nice reframe about who I’m writing for and why.)
Right now I’m experimenting with a second Substack publication where I can cross post entries in my “Artist’s Log.”
Like a Captain’s Log, but for art.
This is an outgrowth of moving my hybrid note taking practice into Obsidian. I’ve been using it for a month now and it works brilliantly with my particular magpie brain.
So here we are.
I’m essentially turning my blogging process inside out. I’m recentering on my own creative practice. Then cross posting that to Substack. It’s a subtle difference, but it feels like a powerful one.
I’m also rooting more deeply into what I find interesting rather than guessing what you want to read.
Eclectic weirdos are invited to hang out and chat in comments here or subscribe for weekly emails.