A Newsletter Girl in an Instagram World

Your inbox just got more beautiful and silly

Hi!

Welcome to the inaugural issue of “A Small Creative Newsletter”. I want to start by congratulating you for being a patron of the fine arts!

Yes, you!

Don’t fret, you haven’t agreed to present me money by subscribing to my dispatch (but I have been known to gladly accept American dollars). You’re choosing to grant a few minutes of your attention by reading about the growing practice of an artist (in this case, I’m the artist. Bonjour.). This truly is an appreciated and important form of support in a young creative’s world…. especially a world ladened with pressures of social media algorithms, catchy reel videos, and follower counts.

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From an Instagram Girl to a Newsletter Woman

Yes, this is a coming of age story about a girl who started her art business on Instagram in 2014 and is now considering herself a rogue journalist… devoting her professional time to google synonyms for words like “newsletter” in hopes of providing readers with rich inbox literature (as well as divulging the most pressing topics that surround painted florals and Etsy sales).

Now I‘ll try my best to condense some time and spare us all from a rant about social media… I hopped on the newsletter train so I could lessen the weight that the Instagram app has carried for my business. As I’ve spent the past 8 years posting photos of my illustrations and paintings, I have found Instagram to be a marvelous tool for connecting with artists and those who love art. I truly wouldn’t have been able to turn my creativity into a full-time career without it.

But sadly, over the years, the app has grown to be somewhat of a complicated crutch for many artists and small businesses. The “algorithm” today makes it so a dramatically small number of folks see my work that I post (this “dramatically small number” is in contrast to the number of those who actually follow my page). Long story short, the vibe right now is that if a business with an Instagram wants their posts to be seen, they need to get more followers and/or post more Reel videos and/or just pretty much be on the app all the time and engage with folks constantly to assure their work is more noticed on the app. It’s a obvious bummer because:

a) I want folks to see my art so I can sell that art to support my financial livelihood

b) it really can be a blow to the self-esteem (yes.. I do know my art is good! Thank you for the kind words. But still! Ugh!)

c) I truly don’t want to put in the time/energy to be “good” at Instagram. It’s amazing that other people can, but I’m personally tired of trying to keep up and I don’t want to

Now I’ll stop talking about social media because I can feel that rant brewing. I really will still use the app and post some pretty pics (maybe even an occasional reel if I’m feeling silly), but I’d like to lessen my dependency on it as I share my creative updates. The goal is to be *unbothered*

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Now for a palette cleanser, here’s a screenshot of my first ever Instagram post on @smallcreative from August 27th, 2014. I had just opened my Etsy shop and remember being decently nervous. So sweet!

Thanks Mom and Juliana for liking my 2014 line art and intentional use of lower case letters! Now back to my grass-roots newsletter journey. I really am excited for this. I have always liked to write (and I forget I do, even though I constantly keep a journal) (also flex alert: I was published by TIME for Kids and American Girl in grade school) and it’ll be nice to share this corner of my creativity again. Most newsletter issues won’t be this wordy (aka I won’t be sharing my professional social media woes every time. Disappointing, I know).

Let me now give you a little tour of how this will normally work….

What’s on My Desk Today?

Thanks for asking! Every dispatch will answer this pressing question and feature a photo of the current state of my desk at my studio. Today’s desk pic includes a cookbook of bad 80’s food photography and my painting attempt to capture the concerning essence of this pale fettuccine (it MUST be paler). The other WIPs are a fancy-trinket-inspired gouache series I started while housesitting earlier this month.

This featured desk photo will always be RAW and REAL-TIME. This is JOURNALISM baby!!!

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What’s for Sale Today?

Thanks for asking! Now we’ll get to the brass tacks and I’ll try to sell you stuff.

Fine Art of the Week

A sweet little 5x7” canvas painting done with acrylic. Look at those bitty strawberries! You need her! She’s $75 and *available*

Email me at alligracehall@gmail.com for purchase inquiries

Society6 Item of the Week

My poor Society6 shop is constantly forgotten by myself and others, so we’ll throw the shop a bone and give it a newsletter feature. It really is a nice way to get my art onto products that I don’t want to produce myself (the beach towels rock), but for now the shop is just lamely existing in the cyber-ether. So click the button below to treat yourself to a cool insulated can-cooler for those hot summer beach days!

Etsy Print of the Week

My Etsy shop is the opposite of my Society6 shop, where I’m constantly tending to it and fulfilling orders myself. This week's featured print is a limited-edition, 11x17” beauty from my “Catchall” gallery show last March in Dallas. I’m so proud of this poster (thanks Sophie for the lettering) and this show. There’s a limited run of these posters and I’d like to think they’ll be worth some dollars one day! Purchase one with the link below:

What’s Inspiring Me Right Now?

Thanks for asking! We’ll end each dispatch on a note where I don’t try to sell you stuff, but I let you know what is currently giving me inspiration. Right now I’m really enjoying this book of weird food photography from 1983. After starting my year painting still life pieces from real observation, I currently enjoy painting more of a “flat lay” birds'-eye scene that someone else had styled. Also, I love the idea of painting quirky scenes that include tiny shrimps wrapped in lame lettuce, styled orange slices from a can, and MANY toothpicks.

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These days I’m really craving a more peaceful pace of life where I’m not on my phone or fretting about societal pressures as much. This newsletter is a fruit of that wish… a way to be more off the grid but also still living on some form of grid where I’m still painting and sharing. I’m excited to pop over from my grid (which will reside in Chilltown USA) (hopefully) and into your inbox again. Thank you so much for subscribing! Until next time.

Your favorite rogue journalist,

Allison