DIARY OF MY DIGITAL YEAR

END OF DECEMBER 2017

I’ve been framing all my own work on the days in between Christmas and New Year. I”d been asked by Taylor Nuttall to display my Artwork at Thorney How B&B, Grasmere. Jacqui and I travelled up there on the 30th and we left Millom devoid of any snow and within half an hour we were able to see Coniston Old Man looking beautiful in a cape a snow. I left my framed prints at the B&B, fingers crossed I can get some exposure or sales.

Week 1 2018

New Years resolutions, are they really so difficult to maintain throughout the year? I try to keep mine simple and to just two or three.

1. Try to be a little more optimistic than last year.

2. Try to be a little less pessimistic than year.

There that’s it, just the two. I’ve written them down on the Calendar so that I have no chance of forgetting them. Well, until I turn the page over to February.

Oh, there is a third resolution and it’s career based.

CREATE A BIGGER PRESENCE ON THE INTERNET.

At the start of each year I try to evaluate what happened in the previous year and if I could have done more to maximise the opportunities that I had or did I cope with the pitfalls that occurred during the year. And I always feel I let myself on both counts.

So, time for a change(do I put a full stop or a question mark)

I’m fully aware of all the Social Networks out there, but I’m by far a novice when it comes to utilising them properly. Therefore over the last 3 to 4 months I’ve spent more time reading, listening to podcasts and audio books trying to crack the mystery of how to gain more of a profile on the the internet. I want people to know about my Brand because I”m proud of it.

The jist of the advice is to create CONTENT. Let people know about YOU and not so much of what your product is.

CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT.

Well, what do you want to know? Just the basics first. 54 year old Yorkshireman, I have a partner, Jacqui, a 5 year old Staffie rescue dog called Kirsty. She’s adorable and I love her to bits.

I have similar feelings towards Jacqui too.

I own a picture framing business in a coastal town in Cumbria, Millom and I’m also a Digital Artist. Last year the framing business was atrocious and this year really is make or break for the shop. Which is an incentive to get my BRAND out there, visible on the internet.

More about myself. When I get in the shower each morning I put my iTunes songs on shuffle, here’s my list of of 1st songs of the day.

MONDAY - Rain, Martin Stephenson and The Daintees

TUESDAY - The Bowmans, Tony Hancock

WEDNESDAY - Fake Tales of San Francisco, Arctic Monkeys

THURSDAY - Only Ones Who Know, Arctic Monkeys

FRIDAY - Blinded By The Light, Bruce Springsteen

SATURDAY - Breakdown, Prince

SUNDAY - Aviation, The Last Shadow Puppets

Slow start on the framing front on this 1st week back, 5 jobs in thats all. Hey O’. Plenty of Photo restoration work in though. I’m not a fan of Photoshop, well I’m not a fan of their monthly fees so I use Affinity Photo and it works well for the work I do.

To end this Diary entry for the first week of the year I can tell you that that I love Football and that my team is Leeds United. So after our FA Cup exit to a team two divisions below us it seems that the tone for the year may have been set already.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose..

Until next week….

#digitalart #firstblog #lakedistrict #cumbria