With an open studio planned as part of the East Gippsland Winter Festival, I could see how Facebook was the logical and effective way to spread the word and bring a huge amount of local people to the house.
So why risk this and choose to delete my Facebook and Instagram accounts...
Well, it had been on my mind for a while.
I am definitely not a tech-savvy person: I mean... I draw with pencils on paper... I think that says it all... :-)
I have been disagreeing with the principles of Facebook for a while (cyber bullying, hate speech, showing videos of crimes and massacres) and considered Facebook the place where all the anger gathered and boiled over into a cowardly anonymous rant. On the other hand, I quite liked Instagram and its more upbeat and supportive approach.
I discovered many talented artists who inspired me to keep learning techniques and keep going with my art. My absolute favourite all time artist hero is CJ Hendry, a Brisbane-born realism artist who started with black pens and now creates amazing pieces with coloured pencil. They were other amazing artists such as Gabriella Anouk, Erin Rothstein, Jono Dry and “Fried egg man” (aka: Daniel Halksworth)
But as time went on, I could hear more and more issues manifesting through Instagram. Every single query I got about my art on Instagram was a scam about NFTs. Many other artists documented the same experience.
This year, I have read many (stories) of artists who have had their accounts hacked. The hacker then uses the profile to sell works or courses which don’t exist and steal the money and/or personal information. Sometimes, they communicate directly with all the contacts of that artist to infiltrate their account.
It went from 1 artist, to 1 a week, to everyday that I would be reading about someone experiencing this and having to battle with Meta to protect their account again.
The second issue was that because Instagram is an image platform, every artwork shown on Instagram then became usable.
The development of AI means that people are now taking images off the platform and selling them somewhere else, pretending to be the artist. It only takes AI a second to re-create an artwork with thousands of variants.
So, rather than wait and deal with the same problems, I quit social media altogether!
It is back to gool old-fashioned face to face, exhibitions, meet and greet, etc. Which fits PERFECTLY with my “Nostalgia” series and the idea of going back to simple things and remembering objects from our childhood...
You will still find me on the website and email, and I promise I will do my best to keep you updated of any fun events coming up (There will be not just one, but 2 exhibitions happening in Victoria in 2025)
Hello Cecile,
I commend you on your move. Neither my husband, or I, have social media accounts. We gave up on FaceBook a long time ago when cycling through Europe. Our account was continually locked because our IP address 'had changed'.
Friends and family still on FaceBook will inform me separately if a big event occurs, they do not have any problems with our lack of connectivity.
So, congratulations to you on a brave move. I hope you continue to enjoy stress free success.
I still plan to commission a drawing from you, but am in the middle of renovations. The topic still has to appear to me. It will be a drawing for my husband's somewhat huge shed.
I…