On being brave and starting a TikTok account!
I feel like I’ve taken few new leaps of faith/bravery lately. Mostly relating to social media!
I wrote in my last blog a little about introversion - in fact, I struggled so much with being shy as a child (I barely spoke at school till I reached secondary school!) and had deleted Facebook many years ago - the nature of that kind of online interaction wasn’t right for me at all.
A few years ago I set up an Instagram account for my art - I was so shy and nervous about it I spent ages coming up with an ‘art name’ so that I could share my illustrations without people knowing it was me. Which was very silly as I was already selling traditional art/taking commissions under my actual name!
But I found Instagram really stressful! And also felt too influenced by my feed of other artists’ work - which, whilst is so nice to see, was interrupting my own creative flow.
I had also set up a YouTube channel, which I loved doing - I think because it was about telling little stories about my day, sharing behind the scenes of my art process and because a core component of my Masters degree was documentary-making, so I did find it really fun…
But then I got all shy and deleted my account hahaa…but I’m going to reinstate it soon…Maybe…if I’m brave enough!
But I have, for the first time in my life, downloaded TikTok and started making short videos to get back into it - and I’m officially addicted 😄
Experimenting with TikTok: Findings so far: people are far more interested in my dog than my art 😂
I’m always saying how glad I am that I grew up without the internet, but I’d have loved it when I was young! So many cute videos of animals, fascinating clips of other artists working away, sharing their art and their ups and downs…and the best thing is: making videos is so fun - especially when I can include Cookie in them 🐕
(For anyone who knows me who might stumble across this…yes, Cookie is her ‘stage name’ lol. I renamed her for when I was trying to be anonymous online!)
Check out our latest behind the scenes and snippets of silliness on TikTok! : https://www.tiktok.com/@ciara.hegarty.art
Some doodles inspired by a dog walk November, at Stoborough Nature Reserve