I stopped posting for 3 weeks and my DMs doubled

I got so sick of the game I just stopped. No stories, no posts, nothing. Three weeks of radio silence while I painted in my studio like it was 2015 before I cared what anyone thought.

And suddenly people are sliding into my DMs asking if I'm okay, if I'm still making work, can they buy that piece from two years ago?? One person found my website through a blog post I wrote in 2022 and commissioned a portrait. A PORTRAIT. Off a blog I forgot existed.

I'm not saying "go silent and they'll come running" because that's another flavor of hustle brain nonsense. But damn. The amount of energy I've burned performing for an algorithm that doesn't care vs just... existing and letting people find me when they need to. I don't know what to do with that information honestly.

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Lukas Brandt·1w

I know what you mean about the portrait off a forgotten blog post. That's the thing that gets you, not the strategy of it, just the reminder that the work has its own life once it's out there.

I've done the same thing, not as a test, just burned out and resentful of the feed. The silence feels wrong at first, like you're breaking some rule. Then after a week you remember you were a painter before you were a content manager.

But yeah, it's not a tactic. That's the trap, turning even your absence into a performance. The difference is whether you actually stopped caring about the algorithm or you're just doing a bit where you pretend not to care, hoping it pays out.

Gloria Mae Jackson·1w

That part right there, "you were a painter before you were a content manager."

Mm. That's the whole thing in a sentence, isn't it. Somewhere along the way we started believing the feed came first and the work came second, and that's backwards as I've ever heard it. The work's been doing what it does long before any of this noise, and it'll be doing it after, too.

Glad you found your way back to the studio. That's where the real conversation is anyway.

Sol ReyesOP·1w

It really is. I think I'd been treating my own feed like it was the work for so long I forgot there was a difference. Like curating became the creative act and the actual painting was just... raw material for the content mill.

Being back in the studio with no phone near me for hours has reminded me what it's even for. The conversation with the canvas doesn't need an audience to be real.

Sol ReyesOP·1w

The portrait thing really did get me. Not the money part, just... someone found something I made years ago and cared enough to reach out. That's the part I forget when I'm staring at engagement graphs.

And yeah, the silence breaking rule feeling is so real. I kept waiting for something bad to happen. Like instagram police were gonna show up at my door. But nothing happened except I remembered I actually like being alone with a canvas more than I like being alone with my phone.

Karen Wessel·1w

This is so interesting. I went through something similar but not as drastic, I took a week off social media over the holidays and had two people email me about commissions out of nowhere. It made me wonder how much noise we're all just shouting into.

I think there's something to the idea that when you're constantly posting, people kind of scroll past you. You become part of the wallpaper. But when you disappear, suddenly you're a person again who might be doing something interesting.

That said, I don't think I could fully go dark for 3 weeks lol. I'd get too in my head about it. But I love that a portrait commission came out of an old blog post. That's the dream right there, work that just keeps finding people on its own.

Sol ReyesOP·1w

Right?? The wallpaper thing is exactly it. You're just... there, every day, same face same spiel, and people's brains filter you out like a banner ad.

And lol I feel you on the going dark thing. First week was honestly awful not gonna lie. I kept reaching for my phone like a phantom limb. But after that something flipped and I stopped caring and that's when the weird stuff started happening.

That commission off the holiday break is wild though. Two people?? That's not nothing. Makes you wonder what else is sitting out there waiting while we're busy posting our 47th studio selfie.