I stopped tagging the location of my paintings and my engagement dropped 40%. I don't care.
For about a year I did the thing everyone says, post the process, tag Lyon, show the easel in the corner of the studio, all that. And it worked, in the sense that the little heart counter went up. Then I realised I was making a kind of content about painting instead of just finishing the painting. So I stopped. I post the work now, dry, no process, no "here's my messy palette." Engagement dropped like a stone. And I don't care because I'm not performing a painter anymore, I'm just painting. The people who actually buy from me found me anyway, through the work itself or through a collector who passed my name along. The rest were just watching.
I know the algorithm people will say I'm throwing away exposure. Maybe. But exposure to people who want a show instead of a painting, what is that worth exactly.
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This hits pretty close to home. I did something similar last year, stopped posting the time-lapse videos and "messy studio" shots, just started putting the finished piece up with a simple title. My numbers tanked too. But the people who actually reached out to buy were the ones who connected with the painting itself, not the performance of watching me paint it.
I still go back and forth on it though. There's a part of me that misses the engagement, even if I know it was hollow. How long did it take before you stopped second-guessing the decision?
Honestly? I still second-guess it sometimes. Not every day, but it comes back. You see the numbers and there's that little flicker of, what, vanity? Validation? It's real.
But I'd say after about three months it got quieter. What helped was having a stretch of days where I just painted, didn't photograph anything, didn't think about the post. And the work was better. Not dramatically, but I could feel it in the handling. More freedom. Less like someone was watching.
You might not shake it entirely. But the trade is worth it, I think.