Hello hello! It's been a while. For the month of September this year I decided to delete Instagram and not post or check anything there for a whole month...an experiment if you will. Here's what happened.

So, the reason I wanted to try this out is probably relatable to a lot of people who are on the app for their art or small business. I was feeling burnt out, I was feeling pressure to post every day–and guilt when I couldn't, and I didn't like that. It really took away my motivation to create, but I also wondered if being on instagram affected not just the choice to create, but what I create. I wanted to know what I felt compelled to draw, paint, print, etc without the external influence of what other artists were doing or what might be trending at the time. But I also wanted to give myself zero expectations.
I didn't really miss being on the app at first. I don't think I spend an unreasonable amount of time scrolling on instagram, probably more than I should but also not so much that I never get anything else done in a day. So I didn't miss that. Any idle moments where I picked up my phone looking for something to entertain me became occupied with reading my book, a duolingo lesson (I have a 400+ day streak!), or pinterest, sometimes TikTok.
The first half of September filled up quickly with a new project: sewing projects for my greyhound. With fall descending upon us in Seattle I felt inspired to make her some new outfits, including this preppy red number, and an ongoing effort to create a skeleton onesie in time for Halloween.

I didn't touch my sketchbook, I think, the whole month. Halfway through I had an idea strike me that I'd had floating around in my head forever, and now seemed like a good time to execute. I drew it on my iPad in procreate:

And after that was finished, I redid my whole website! Another thing that had been floating around in my mind and put off for approximately one year. I thought this task was going to be fairly simple and mostly consist of swapping out a few images, but it turned into a logo update, colour palette creation, and almost all new projects/images. It took me a couple weeks. But I honestly had so much fun, and I think if I had been worrying about instagram it never would have gotten done, because it never would have felt as much a priority.

I started to miss instagram though, towards the last week of the month. Mostly I missed the people on there, who weren't in my direct social circle but who I still considered friends and followed the day to day of their art practice and lives. The internet is so weird for that. I wanted to know what was going on with them. I cheated a couple times, because on September 20th it was Greer's 10th birthday so I re-downloaded the app to share some of the adorable pics on her account. I think that's a pretty good excuse




She is a true earth angel.
I will also say the pressure to create specifically for instagram never fully went away. There were a couple times my mind wandered toward it, automatically pondering what I might post when I return, and mildly stressing that I hadn't created enough in a whole month to...justify (?) the time off. I created a ton actually, just not a lot of "instagrammable" content that "fits" cohesively in my feed.
Acknowledging that, I think this experiment was a positive experience. I lost about 100 followers...but honestly will I miss them? The percentage of people who I interact with and seek out my work are really the only ones I should be putting any energy into. If you're someone who is making art on instagram and you've been feeling burnt out, maybe commit to a month off and see what happens. I promise it won't be the end of the world.
I unintentionally took the month off, from posting. I just kind of lurked on it honestly and it was fine. I missed the chatty communication aspect of it, but I created just to create, and ended up seeing a major shift in my work, plus came up with ideas completely in related to where I *thought* things were going so who knows, maybe it played a part in it, maybe it didn’t! Oddly enough when I was just down, I went and found/seeked out YOUR account to bring some smiles, you do such wonderful animal illustrations, and they just really helped!
Very cool you were able to have some chill on the app haha. I can’t help but sink hours into scrolling, chatting, and answering comments if the app is right there, which is why I deleted it, but moving forward I’m hoping to just have some more chill and a less strict posting schedule (really maybe no schedule at all?). I can feel my green card and work authorization getting closer and closer, so hopefully I’ll have less time soon to spend hyper-focused on one single app. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Enjoyed reading your reflections on taking a month off. It sounds very productive!
Thanks Jennifer for reading my post! I’m feeling good