Lesley Unplugs

 

Lesley Returns to An Analog Life

 

 

Like many creatives, I have been challenged this past year to continue to share my work online, due to the risks posed by AI scraping. My solution was to remove my artwork from the digital sphere altogether.  I hibernated all of my social media accounts. I focused on showing and selling my work locally, and was pleased to have multiple new opportunities present themselves.    

At the same time I became enamoured once again with the "analog life" we all once enjoyed.  Remember the deliciously slow pace of the 90s? I've returned to it. I'm writing real letters by hand (sealed with a traditional stamped wax seal - very cool), reading real books (not that I ever stopped, I never go anywhere without a book), watching DVDs from the library, and returning to the ways I enjoyed life prior to the internet, and in particular social media.  And it feels wonderful. While I am no Luddite - I am creating this blog post on my computer and will publish it online when I'm finished - I do find that my daily dose of joy comes from creating art, crafting, cooking, listening to music, writing, walking, and catching up with friends in person and by phone. It's dreamy! I highly recommend it. 

 So for now my artwork is available for viewing by request. I'm currently figuring out a way to create a digital photo gallery to share in email. After 20 years of sharing online it feels weird to be in a "cone of silence" digitally, but I have never been comfortable with the rah rah rah of self-promotion, and often felt like a hamster on a wheel with the "look at what I'm doing" posts on the various platforms.  It feels good to stop the ride and get off. I CAN happily create without incessantly show-and-telling about it. (The old tree-falling-in-the-forest philosophical thought experiment comes to mind.) 

I am creating a 90's early-internet-days seasonal newsletter mail out (so 4x a year) with text and photos to share what I'm currently working on, pondering, plotting, and planning.  I think this will be a lovely, low tech way to stay connected with folks off of SM platforms. If you are interested in joining my mailing list, email me with "join newsletter" in the subject field:

lesleyfountainstudio@gmail.com  

For now, I delight in an afternoon cuppa while sitting in my window seat watching the leaves fall from my cherry tree, with a mix tape from 1991 playing in my mom's old boombox.  I will forever be grateful to my little brother, who painstakingly created so many very labour-intensive mix tapes and gifted them to me regularly back in "the golden age."  

To connect you can email me, or even better, write me a letter! 

 

It's looking like a beautiful day... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NFV8dHrZYM