I'm thinking about how hard it is to separate who I AM from what I DO. Blogging and social media make it even harder to separate the two. I get really excited about the work I do and have done, and I want to share that with the world as an advocate for how important art and art education is. I'm wondering how to move ahead as an art and art education blogger. I've used this space freely in the past- perhaps too freely- sharing all aspects of my work. As I transition into my new work as an art teacher I'm not sure yet how this space will change. Perhaps I should have a blank slate. But I've worked hard to integrate all aspects of my creative life, and it feels unnatural to keep things separate.
I want to bridge the gaps. Art ed people out there- how do you balance the ownership of what you do with respect for the people/organizations/schools you work with? I feel like this is a very contemporary issue when so many of us write about and share pictures of our work with children. I've just done some purging of my facebook photos and even some blogposts here to scale things back a little. It's discomfiting.
I like to keep my blog, which is written for the families of my elementary school students, completely separate from any other social media. I enjoy Pinterest and Facebook, but these things represent my personal life. I enjoy the blogging community and have often thought of creating a more personal blog about my artistic endeavors and interests, but as a mom of 2 with a full time job I'm afraid my posts might be few and far between, so I haven't started a second one. I do think it is important to limit what you put out there when it comes to your professional life.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think I've kept my blog and social media usage a little more on the professional side. Most of my friends on facebook are other artists and people in non-profits around Philly. I sometimes share photos of my daughter, but it's pretty rare.
ReplyDeleteThe ironic thing is this topic is what I wrote my thesis on, so it should be a no-brainer for me!