The post that went nowhere on Instagram is the one that actually paid

spent three days on a reel showing my process, nice lighting, satisfying brush strokes, all that. 12k views. exactly zero inquiries.

a week later i posted a genuinely stupid photo of a painting leaning against a dumpster with the caption "found this in the trash lol should i keep it", it's not even a good photo. some guy DM'd me within an hour asking if it was available and i sold it for $800.

i don't know what to do with this information. the algorithm is a trickster god and i'm just its little guy.

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Kasia Nowak·5d

this is so frustrating and familiar lol. i had a similar thing happen, spent days on a proper pastel portrait video, nice music, good lighting, barely any reaction. then i posted a photo of my dog sitting on a half-finished sketch, not even intentional, and people were asking about commissions.

i think there's something to what that other comment said about signaling "real." the dumpster painting thing is almost like a little story your brain finishes on its own, someone found something, is it any good, should they keep it, and that hooks you in a way that a perfect reel doesn't. the reel tells you everything already. there's nothing to wonder about.

still doesn't make it any less annoying when you put actual work into something and the algorithm just ignores it 🙃

Elin Holm·5d

The dog photo thing makes sense. There's nothing to resist with that one. It's just your dog on some paper. No ask attached. So people can just like it freely, and then the wanting happens on their side.

Teddy LinOP·5d

yeah that's the part that's wild to me. i didn't even think about it when i posted the dumpster thing, it was just a joke. but the wanting happening on their side instead of me shoving it in their face... that's the whole trick and i accidentally stumbled into it. gonna be chasing that high for the rest of my career probably.

Teddy LinOP·5d

oh the dog on the half-finished sketch is so real lol. they want the mess. they want to feel like they're getting a behind-the-scenes look at something, not a finished product being pushed at them. i've started deliberately staging "candid" shots of my studio and it works every time but it makes me feel like such a manipulator. like congrats, you've reverse-engineered being authentic.

Giulia Bruno·5d

This is genuinely interesting because it's not just an algorithm thing, it's about what signals "real" to another person. The polished reel tells people you're trying to sell them something. The dumpster photo tells them you're just some person who happens to make things, and that creates a different kind of desire. It's like the work becomes a found object even though you made it.

I think about this a lot with printmaking actually, there's something about the edition, the multiple, that removes the preciousness and lets people encounter the work differently. When something looks too intentional it closes people off sometimes. The dumpster photo accidentally did what a lot of artists spend years trying to do on purpose.

Teddy LinOP·5d

yeah i think you nailed it honestly. the polished reel is basically me holding a sign that says "please buy this" and nobody likes being sold to. the dumpster photo accidentally made it feel like a discovery, like i wasn't even trying to move it.

the edition thing is real too. there's something about a one-of-one that makes people hesitate vs a print run where the stakes feel lower and they actually commit. it's backwards.