To Blog or Not to Blog?

I love to draw people, but it's hard to do and a little weird when they catch you watching them!  But at the book store, people are occupied and you can be discrete behind your laptop! 

"Everyone has a blog now days" my daughter said one day a while back.  It made me stop short.  What does that mean?  And it made me think.  There are certainly a lot of blogs out there.  And I read them--ha!  No really, there are blogs about absolutely everything. Many, many blogs. Which had me wondering.
Why am I blogging?  Do I really have anything new to say? Anything relevant?  Or are blogs just a popularity contest to see how many people you can get to read your stuff or maybe to monetize?  Is it just a glorified journal? What am I doing it for?

Good questions to ask myself.  Originally when I began it was for my students and I had a small, very small list of readers.  Mostly I gave help with art, but a lot of the time I wrote to encourage.  Over the years my readership grew as did my classes and my business.  Not anything to write home about, but in my little corner of the world I was having a great time!  And I was enjoying sharing my love of art through teaching and writing here and showing my work.  But I have been most interested and surprised in the growth of my blog.  I have quite a few followers, some from all over the world, and I wonder sometimes what brings you here?  Why do you read my obscure little blog?  And for those who have been here since the beginning, why do you keep reading? 

I'm not sure the answer to those questions.  Or if I should even keep blogging.  Yet I keep writing.  And the series I've done on my dad has been very well recieved.  That was surprising to me also.  I figured without art based content, readership would drop off. But it didn't. I believe that life is art.  And your art will reflect your life.  The more of "you" you put into it, the more it will resonate with others.  More on that later, but I believe I hit a cord with readers because writing is art.  What I couldn't do with a brush I was doing with a keyboard.  And I was writing about my journey.  Yes, its about me.  But it's not either.  Its about you as well.  

I think this little break from the art and caregiving for my dad has made a huge impact on how I view my art now. (and life)  I will be sharing some of those revelations in some upcoming posts, but the biggest realization has been how empty life is without art.  I think sometimes we need to be emptied.  If you are never emptied, you can never be refilled.  

So, more to come, but I want to thank you for reading!  I hope it inspires you to be creative. Or to take a break and be emptied.