No Blog is better than a Bad Blog

If you've looked at my website (http://www.pjsutton.co.uk/home.html) you'll notice that there's just my artwork on display. There's no blog.

Now, we're told we should have blogs - to 'bond with people who like their work', to quote The Artist's Guide to Selling Work by Annabelle Ruston. All well and good in theory. But...

What if you can't think of anything to write?

I'm not a natural blogger. I called this blog 'Open a Vein' after the quote (often attributed to Hemingway) that goes "There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein". In other words, words don't come easy. And this particular blog is about all kinds of stuff, whereas a printmaker's blog, you would expect, would be purely concerned with printmaking. Not many potential customers, the people a printmaker is trying to attract, are going to care about his opinions on world politics or the ridiculously high price of lamb.

And so, if the blog is purely about techniques and processes, it's going to appeal, not to customers, but to other printmakers! Your rivals!

I checked out a few of my favourite printmakers' sites to see what they were doing:

Nick Morley, AKA Linocutboy - Ten blog posts in the last year. A mix of tips, news about work done and courses available. http://linocutboy.com/blog/

Mark Andrew Webber - Four posts since May, but it's a new site. He says "I also hope to be updating this blog on a more regular basis, to include work in progress pictures, and general thoughts", so looks like the last blog wasn't too regular. http://markandrewwebber.com/?page_id=2331

Gail Brodholt - No blog. http://www.gailbrodholt.com/

Paul Catherall - No blog. http://www.paulcatherall.com/

Kevin Holdaway - No blog. http://www.kevintraditionalprintmaker.co.uk/

Angie Lewin - Nine posts in the last year. News on her and other printmakers. No tips. http://www.angielewin.co.uk/blogs/news

So some do, some don't. Perhaps I'm just arguing about the definition of the term 'blog'. In my mind a  blog is a constant stream of blather, and it's beyond me how people can come up with all the stuff they do. I suppose its not the doing that bothers me, but the frequency and quality. I can do quality. Quantity I'll leave to others.