"Why does promoting my own work feel so cringe?"
HIYA WELCOME BACK! We missed you!
Summer holidays are all done here in the UK. Hope you had a good rest too.
This week our Katie's chatting to Mollie Balshaw, one half of Short Supply:
Short Supply is an artist-led creative practice founded by Mollie and Rebekah Balshaw. Since 2019, they have helped artists navigate creative careers through exhibitions, publishing, workshops, mentoring and public conversations. Their work makes the hidden structures of the art world more visible, while encouraging artists to take their ideas seriously without waiting for perfect conditions. Their current projects include 100 Ideas and Step One, a series of conversations taking place at Edinburgh Fringe.
Short Supply posed this cracker of a question over on Instagram: why is visibility treated like ego, when artists need it to survive?
There's chat about snobbery re; wanting to earn money from your work, the bits of being visible online that you're not warned about, aaaand the boundaries Mollie and Rebekah have built to keep themselves safe.
Then there's the can-you-have-a-successful-creative-career-outside-London question, and why "it's local so it must be rubbish" can get into our heads.
Unfortunately, the Edinburgh Fringe is finished now 😭 but Step One was Short Supply's project and you can read all about it here: https://www.shortsupply.org/step-one
Timestamps, for the timestamp fans:
00:00 – Intro to Mollie, Rebekah and Short Supply
01:20 – Why is visibility treated like ego?
02:30 – Being talented is admirable, wanting to be seen is embarrassing. Whyyy?
03:30 – Starting Short Supply out of frustration (and wanting an excuse to collaborate)
04:30 – Who the art world isn't built for
05:30 – Snobbery about "commercial", snobbery about social media
06:20 – "Do I have to show my face?"
07:30 – Algorithms, platform politics, visibility
09:20 – Energy and capacity
10:20 – The flip side of a post going big
11:20 – When visibility isn't safe: queer, disabled and racialised artists
12:30 – Boundaries
14:00 – Would you mind a stranger saving it?
15:20 – You don't *need* to be on social media to promote your creative work
16:00 – Edinburgh Fringe as the best word-of-mouth machine in the country
16:40 – Step One: the Fringe show
17:40 – "I'm not telling you my idea in case you nick it"
18:20 – You can't benefit from an idea that stays in your head
20:20 – Smooth peanut butter vs crunchy
21:00 – Manchester
23:00 – Building a creative career outside London.
24:20 – proximity to London still counts for a lot
25:40 – "Manchester's caught up" or has it?
28:40 – Contradicting yourself out loud is just thinking. Allowed.
30:40 – Who are the David Hockneys of Salford right now?
33:00 – Local snobbery, and galleries that don't invite their neighbours
35:00 – Growing up somewhere small and assuming everything local is rubbish
36:30 – You have more choices than you think (a story about Mollie's nan)
38:00 – The joy of a part-time job/everyone else's secret pile of money
39:20 – AI, and being glad it didn't exist at uni
40:40 – "They may have been rubbish, but they were mine"
Links mentioned:
Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)
p.s. If you'd like more options for being-visible-without-being-sick-in-your-mouth, that's exactly what we get stuck into in Illustration Business Club! Doors are opening in October and you can read up on it here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business
Come and say hello!
✏️ @thegoodshipillustration
🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com
p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙
