I reshared an old piece of my brother's jacket and it did better than anything I've made in a year
Posting the stuff that actually costs me something keeps getting more engagement than the stuff I sweat over. Last week I threw up a photo of a small piece I made years ago, from a denim jacket that belonged to my brother. It's been half unstuck, I taped it back down, the photo was taken on my kitchen counter at midnight. 1,200 likes. Meanwhile I spent a month on a panel piece, photographed it properly, thought about captions for two hours, and it got 87.
I don't know what to do with that. I'm not chasing the algorithm, but I'm also tired of pretending the numbers don't land somewhere in me. The honest version is: the work that gets seen is the work that has a story I don't want to tell. That's a weird thing to build a practice around.
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I've watched this happen enough times to have a theory about it. The piece that costs you something carries its own weather. You can see it in a photo even at midnight on a kitchen counter. The taped tape, the wear, the fact that it belonged to someone you love. That's not nothing that you put there. It's in the paint before you even decide to share it.
The month-long panel piece, the one you thought about captions for two hours... that's the thing. The caption is where the effort went. I'd bet the piece itself is fine, maybe very good. But you were performing it by the time it got posted. The other one, you just held it up. People feel the difference instantly. They're not sophisticated about it, they just know which one has a pulse.
That's not a reason to chase the accidental ones. But it might be a reason to ask what you were guarding in the month-long piece that you let go in the other. Often the answer is the same thing that makes a painting breathe.
"carries its own weather", yeah. that's exactly it. the tape isn't a decision I made for the photo, it's just... the piece being honest about itself.
you're right about the caption thing too. that panel piece was me trying to sell it before anyone even saw it. the jacket piece I didn't even write a proper caption, I think I said "made this a while ago" and hit post. that might be the whole lesson and I hate that it is.