Recently I’ve met up with quite a few people that I am connected with only because of my art. Some of them have been in this whole blogging world much longer than I have and some of them were just kind enough to share their input and kind words with me. I love those people. That is the part of my job I absolutely love and would never give up; the opportunity to be connected to so many amazing creative people who are all doing their own thing.

In some of those conversations, I was being interviewed in a casual way. It got me thinking about a few things about my life and my business. A few of the questions kept coming up and those were the ones I was struggling with. One of them was do you ever worry about your life being on the internet?

So the internet question has been on my mind a lot but it is a recent development. I don’t think anyone who is obsessed with social media, like myself is really afraid of their life being on the web. You could argue that everyone’s life is on the web because of Facebook and nothing is really private these days anyway. I think when you start gaining a following this is a bit of a different story. Certain people in Minneapolis know my company exists because of Instagram feeds I have appeared on or events my work has been at and that is great, it’s the goal. As of lately, I have been posting less and less artwork and more behind the scenes glimpses of my work. (I’ll get to my reasoning on that in a later post) Long story short, my face is literally all over my feed rather than just the art.

When I go to events and such I don’t typically introduce myself as an illustrator or a designer or the founder of queenikathleeni designs. I probably should for networking purposes but I don’t. When I’m in public I’m usually wearing slim to no makeup, a beanie covering messy hair and an outfit from yesterday. That’s just who I am and it’s not going to change. I am very proud of the PERSON I have worked to become and there is a huge separation between who I present myself to be on certain platforms and who I am in person. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that. Actually, there are a lot of things that are very great about that, especially in the design world. In a way, my life is not online at all. Each picture I post takes about 20 minutes for me to stage. I run around my apartment and grab things that will be pleasing in an arrangement, I take around 12 pictures, I edit them in two different platforms and then I post the picture if I think it will fit the aesthetic of my feed. I’m very careful and purposeful with my pictures but no, it is not my life. As I told a student who was interviewing me; it is all an illusion that you create, I saw other people creating this dream world through photos and I thought, I can do that too. Most of my photos are from my bed. Do I ever work from my bed? No. I stop working, stage a photo on my bed and then go back to my desk and work. It is a job, not real life.

I can play the game too.