I have been creating art for 6 years now, the journey has been a great one, but like any job or profession, it doesn’t come without its challenges and frustrations along the way. Below are some deep thoughts but also frustrating and challenging moments I have faced and still sometimes face along my journey. If you’re an artist or creator I’m sure you will relate to some of these experiences…
Instagram’s Algorithm No Longer Helps
When I started using instagram for my art 6 years ago, I didn’t have any problems with my work being seen. I began sharing my artwork with around 500 followers, a few years later I had 6k+ followers liking and sharing my work. In fact, instagram’s old algorithm strategy has given me so much social media presence, my business would not be where it is without it, for that I am grateful.
The frustrating thing is, over the last 2+ years, instagram’s way of doing things has changed dramatically. The algorithm we once knew is no longer friends to us artist. From my personal testings, I have tried boosting posts using some of my business budget and found my reach to be far greater than non-boosted posts, which is frustrating, you are pretty much having to use your budget in order to share your work on this particular social media platform. I will also add that being a verified account does not have an impact on your algorithm results either.
Personally I think instagram can become a money sink for artists. I hope this will change again someday, but right now things don’t look great. While I am grateful for how instagram has helped me in the past, I believe all social media platforms should be helping artists promote our work in a manner that doesn’t require us to fork out of our budget for every piece of art we share.
Stolen Work Sold On Etsy
One of the risks of sharing your artwork online, is seeing your art taken without permission and being sold for profit. I’m grateful to people in the past for letting me know when they’ve noticed my art being misused or sold. Etsy marketplace seems to be the most common place my artwork has been listed.
It’s never fun to have to deal with these situations, often Etsy doesn’t take any action against shops selling stolen work. This is the case for some of my designs, they’re still listed in some shops and there’s nothing I can do about the situation currently.
The Rapid Popularity Of AI
Perhaps the most discussed topic creators talk about right now is AI… While I believe AI can be beneficial for certain uses and situations, I am against its use when it comes to art and creative purposes. If you’re an artist, you should be coming up with your own work using your own skills without the need of AI doing the job for you.
AI will and is slowly taking work away from real artists which is disheartening, artists are people trying to make a living, the life of a creator can already be a struggle, and now we have AI to wrestle and contend with.
Artist Life Is Not Always Easy
As you can see from this post, life as an artist is not always a simple journey without challenges. The above is some of the main concerns myself and other artists tend to bring up for discussion in 2025. What a lot of artists would like to see is, better support from social media platforms, more speaking out against the misuse and overuse of AI and a better algorithm that works for everyone.
I encourage all creators to continue to work hard with their passions, we cannot lose hope!
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