I keep hearing about this term in social media and marketing. Tribe. Seth Godin has written books about this stuff. You can find his book “Tribes”on Amazon…I have yet to read it but it’s on my to do list……What exactly is a tribe? Does it refer to the traditional sense of a village full of people with tattoos and the same hairdo….Or is it a classification of people like all the people in the world who have red hair?
I’m going to do my usual thing and Google it. Inserted it here is the definition that I found.
Tribe : a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.
If this definition is correct, where is my leader? I mean I have a lot of artists that I greatly admire. And I have art styles that I’m very attracted to much more than others. I have my all-time favorite Artists like Van Gogh and Matisse and People like Judge Judy but most of them are long dead so they can’t really be my leader now can they.
I am going to declare here now that I am the leader of my own tribe! THE TRIBE OF KIM…it’s a small and strange tribe. A tribe of anxiety, depression, humour, hilarity, absurdity, gluttony, imperfection and foot in mouth disease….and yes….sometimes bad haircuts….How’s that for a group of one?
Oh, I know there are others like me out there somewhere….the trick is to find you. Every Artist has their audience. That’s what I’ve been told. I truly believe I wouldn’t have the urge to make the art that I do if there weren’t people out in the world who would appreciate seeing it. Some people love Banksy and pay millions for his work….I don’t get it. That is true for a LOT of art that I see out there. My Mother looks at MY work and says “I don’t get it”. Fair enough.
I want my tribe! I’ve tried to find them on Instagram but that is like looking for a dime that you’ve dropped in a sea of quarters. I’ve looked on YouTube but there’s hardly anybody quite like me to see. There is one guy that I think is “the bomb” for how he paints and how much he shares. darrynrae.com Go check him out if you love outsider, free and loving work!
Most people want to paint pretty things like trees, portraits and flowers and there’s nothing wrong with that. I want to paint colour and craziness…or sadness…or rage…or outrageous people who look kooky.
Sometimes I get quite blue about the whole thing. I’m pretty sure it’s an artists curse to think that everything you do is crap. Top that off with crappy stuff that goes on in your life and everything can seem like quite a crap burger….crap burgers for days…….
Then something nice happens and you get just a little speck of recognition and it makes your day. That’s what happened to me today when I got an email letting me know that I made it onto a list of Canadian Art Bloggers. Whoo Hoo…a small victory for today
Maybe little victories like this will help me find my people. C’mon folks. I know you’re out there. My Tribe.
