I have a confession to make.
As an artist on social media, I have experienced lots of things. One of them is the copyist factor, which today many others have experienced as well. Therefore, hopefully this post makes sense to those who have experienced those emotions as I have. It is somewhat of a PTSD type of thing, honestly. And unfortunately it has resulted in changes as to how I operate as a creative entrepeneur and business owner. I have had to adapt.
I now realize that I am compromising my own creativity, because I am fearful of being plagiarized, copied by scammers, which in the past has resulted in lots of drama in my daily life. This has happened before, many times, and has stolen several days of my happy life away dealing with it (and income). People first told me I was crazy, but now many people have seen the issue of intellectual property theft and understand what it is. Now I mostly create behind the scenes, and am often too nervous to bring these items to the internet. I am hoarding my art and creativity, and it just is not a good thing.
So with this post, I am about to embark on a new online creative journey, and announcing that I will be sharing more of this work from behind the scenes soon.
I am going to be more confident that the system and the people will assist me more, this time, if I am compromised. I debuted a Glow Locket over a decade ago and within days people were using my photos and scamming others. It never ended. Also, the platforms back then were much more in the gray areas and not terminating people as they should have. The digital landscape has been difficult to litigate so I did what I could. I literally had death threats in public and email messages, and people posting my personal information online, and not much could be done about it. I did not contact law enforcement, but was close! Now there are better safe guards set in place on Etsy, Meta and all the others.
And the last few years have been a real struggle since we moved again in early 2020, just before the thing happened. What a mess that was. This year, 2024, is almost half way over and finally going so much better than the past 8 years. Finally! We have not given up.
I am just finishing my new live setup and will be showing off some new work that I am soooo excited about. And it feels so right, so good. I am making things that I absolutely love personally, so my heart and soul are invested and I have a lot to say!
If you read all this thanks so much! Sometimes social media seems so bland and impersonal but I know my people are out there watching, and that is what matters. Big huge thanks! I appreciate everyone who has watched my journey. Now have a great week! 😎
