Steemit Communities, The New Alchemists and Myself as an Artist

Or actually, perhaps there are several things, which I can try putting multiple fingers on...

A big one, most certainly, is the fact that, two weeks ago, I stopped using @smartsteem to buy votes. The whole time I was using their service, I just didn't feel quite right.

I reasoned that it was at least much better than using bidbots. But in the end, after reading a lot about it, especially the posts of @tarazkp, I decided I could not in good conscience continue to buy votes.

Image source

The reasons are complicated but in the end, it just isn't good for the long-term health of the Steemit ecosystem. What IS good for the system is organic votes through real effort put into not only quality posts, but also through community building. Smartsteem and the bidbots are ultimately exploitable and if there's one thing I've learnt about most people on the internetses (or anywhere for that matter), it's that they'll find a way to exploit a system if you leave even the smallest crack open.

So that's one thing. I'm feeling tons better since giving up that particular drug (it is very addictive).

Now, when I get curated, it feels amazing. Thank you to the communities @slothicorn, @ocd and @curie for the amazing work you're doing, helping beginner artists out there, including me, to shine on this platform.

Which brings me to the next thing... Communities.

Yesterday, @ghulammujtaba sought me out on Discord to ask me about a post someone had made with my art. It was someone who had downloaded my free colouring image, made very little effort with it, and posted it with the #slothicorn tag.

I've been voted by @slothicorn (thank you to both @ghulammujtaba and @justatouchfey =) ) many times and feel honoured that they recognise my work so often, but this was a whole new level of making me realise what being part of a good community really means. He actually manually came to find me and ask me if my work had been plagiarized!

I appreciated that SO much. And I thought... "I want to be part of this kind of thing... I want to make a difference on this platform while at the same time growing as an artist."

Which brings me to "The New Alchemists", another community I'm excited about. A friend of mine, @lilyraabe, has begun a new project for artists of all kinds. It actually started a while ago already, off of Steemit. She describes it like this:

The New Alchemists are a cross-disciplinary performance company I started with some wonderful friends (our founders are writers, musicians, theater-makers, and much more). Our mission is to bring diverse stories that need to be told to life – with courage, compassion, humanity, and heart.

After reading all about it (go check out @thenewalchemists) and having been instilled with this recent inspiration, it resonated with me so much that I knew I just had to be part of it. I joined the Discord group immediately, but then started wondering just how I could contribute.

There is the option of being a curator, but I had doubts... First, time is always an issue for me... Steemit has already taken over my life somewhat ;P ... (But it has also caused me to be more productive than I have been in a long time. I tend to rest on my laurels a lot, a habit I've been fighting against for years, but Steemit somehow has got me writing up a new post every day, and making me think of new creative ideas all the time.)

The second issue is Imposter Syndrome... That feeling that I just can't shake off... That I'm not really an "artist"... That there are so many people out there who are better than me, even though I have slowly come to see that I am pretty good and my stuff is quite unique.... I still get this feeling quite often, so then I thought, who am I to be curating?

Then, I remembered all the times I saw something and thought... Gosh... This person really didn't put much effort into this... (with fractals, it can be easy to use the random generator button to produce something quite pretty and call it "art"). I also remembered all the times I saw something extraordinary, recognising how much work went into it...; things I admire and wish I could accomplish too.

Well, isn't all that exactly what curating is? Discovering creativity and recognising its quality? So I could do exactly that for The New Alchemists... Couldn't I? ... Thus, this is, I guess, my official application to become a curator for @thenewalchemists ... ^^

I think I would be perfectly suited to curate in the category of digital visual art in all its forms =) And I'd love to talk with Lily further about possible other ways that I can help (I speak Portuguese and Afrikaans too, btw). The vision of TNA, namely, sharing stories through all forms of art with courage, compassion, humanity and heart, alines perfectly with my own vision of myself as to why I create art at all.

I believe that answers the third question in the Artsearch Curator Application post. I'll try answer the first and second question here:

My core values as a curator would be simply, to discover and help give voice to amazing art by artists who perhaps aren't being noticed on the platform. In discerning, I would use both my own incomplete knowledge of artistic technique and my heart and mind. I believe that good art evokes emotion or makes you think. Great art does both.

And through this, art plays a huge part in our global culture. We recognise each other through it. We realise that despite differences across borders, we have much more in common. It is this sharing and learning from each other that keeps me doing what I do.

I wrote this for my introduction post months ago and I think it is worth repeating here:

So, I've never really been one to share my thoughts with others but I've slowly developed a conviction that has changed my mind about this...
 
There is nothing more fascinating than the fact that we humans have developed self-awareness and intelligence, such as has never occurred in the known universe. It is so taken for granted that we are able to study and understand, with more and more clarity, the nature and inner working of reality, and even our own brains perceiving it! And each of us has this ability... Like a Marvel hero super-power that our species has gained in an evolutionary race, with which we have become the “masters” of the planet and soon might extend our reach farther still.

It is this that inspires me. I am one of these heroes, as are you.
 
The conviction I was getting at is, I feel it necessary that we share with each other our unique perspectives as we, with our one life-time, do our thing here on Earth; that we learn from and get inspired by each other as much as possible to create a better future.
 
I'm looking forward to sharing my own experiences with you all and look forward to finding like-minded people here on Steemit, which seems like an ideal platform for finding and spreading good content. Please share with me your own ideas, convictions and achievements in a comment below. How do your "super-powers" manifest themselves? ;)

That's it for this post. I hope that if you're reading this and you're an artist too, trying to make it here, that you won't give up! And that you won't resort to using bidbots, etc ;P ...

Just do your thing, try hard every day to improve, and get involved! There are plenty of us out here and we should get to know, and support, each other.