To Blog or Not to Blog?

To blog or not to blog?

I've never wanted to blog. I've always seen it as some sort of weirdly narcisstic hobby in a wildly narcisstic culture. I don't read blogs. I don't visit blogs. I don't think about blogs or recommend blogs to my friends or even really like the word blog--it sounds like the name of caveman in a B-movie. I've resisted blogging and the temptation to fill the cyber ethers with my inane ramblings for years. It just seems like the height of silliness and superfluousness to me to clunk away at a keyboard like a hairless monkey and hope that the words I'm flinging amount to more than senseless prose-poo.....metaphorically speaking.

So why am I "blogging" now? One reason: Money. Moohla, cash, coins, payola, cheddar, dough, dosh, Benjamins, bread, bucks, funds, jack, juice, loot, swag, lucre. greenbacks, wampum, dinero, clams....you get the idea. Seems as good a reason as any, no?

Now I'm fully aware that my little word trifles don't directly turn to golden nuggets a la Rumplestiltskin. And I realize I'm not spinning gold outta straw. But I have learned that in order for the Google Gods--and by extension my potential clients--to find my humble little business floating in the Matrix, that I must increase my online presence. One way to do that effectively (so I'm told) is to blog, blog, blog like a light in the fog. So, after much deliberation my inner Captain Picard commanded thusly: "Make it so."

I labored for months on how to make this a cohesive, comprehensive effort to promote my business Painted Poetry, LLC. Which you can visit anytime....cough, cough....by simply going to www.paintedpoetryhome.com....wink, wink. I originally wanted to write only about my current art projects or things relevant to my business. But I couldn't find enough interesting topics about the glamorous world of decorative painting to motivate me to start writing. Plus I wanted to find a way to make a themed blog in which I could potentially experiment with affiliate marketing.

Fortunately or unfortunately I have too many plates spinning to serve up a single, juicy dish or deliver a simple menu. I do pet portraits, murals, faux painting, art shows, athlete portraits, etc. My real interests lie outside the world of art and most definitely beyond the realms of decorative painting. Also, running a respectable business I wanted to make sure not to alienate customers with my usual bombast loaded with filthy word grenades. But then I decided "Fuck it". Popeye was right. I am what I am....a mantra which sounds suspiciously like it has sanskrit origins.

Those who know me are aware that I'm a filthy-mouthed Irishman most of the time. Those who know me also know that for the most part I'm respectable, hard-working, courteous and polite--especially when I'm on the clock. Another famous gemini, Walt Whitman once said "Do I contradict myself? I contain multitudes". So it is with your humble narrator. I've decided to embrace my natural tendency to explore every avenue and wander down the mental paths I choose. I'll just write about whatever I want to.

Essentially I've elected to throw caution to the wind and write like I speak. I've decided it would be infinitely more interesting to explore topics I'm actually interested in instead of writing commercials for myself and my business. The golden thread I'm looking for is not about art per se but instead about the experience of an artful life. And that includes all sorts of things not directly related to the artist's business but, in a peeking-behind-the-curtains-of-Oz sort of way, exposes the spinning cogs in the machine that is Painted Poetry, LLC. Narcissistic or not, blogging seems to be a necessary evil for the modern entrepreneur. Soooo.......

This blog will be whatever I want it to be. This blog will be honest. This blog will be uncensored. This blog will be grammatically incorrect. Hopefully this new direction will be more fulfilling than simply trying to write ad copy for kid's murals and faux-painted garage doors.

In any case, let the narcisstic juices flow and the verbal volcano blow.

Yes, Captain Picard....I will make it so ;-)