🤠Fuck it, we'll do it live!!!

Instagram live, that is. I did my first EVER instagram live video last night. Honestly, that's pretty astounding, considering I'm still in my 20s. I wanted to learn how to use instagram live, as I have my first ever virtual "fair" this weekend! Renegade Craft has decided to host their first ever Virtual Fair, and I am soooo happy to be a part of it. Participants are doing anything from making shoes live, to comedy performances and everything between...I'm excited🤓

As COVID-19 impacts our world, we are relying even more on virtual experiences. You thought you lived on the internet before?! Well, now you actually, literally do...It's a very interesting time. I, for one, have historically been technologically stunted. I won't lie! I didn't get Instagram until 2017, I've never had a Twitter, and I absolutely feel too old for TikTok. But now that pretty much all social interaction happens virtually, I have to step my game up. 

So far, I'm pretty proud of myself...I have even dipped my toe into AR and made an instagram filter 👆👆👆

It was way easier than I thought it'd be! Turns out you can learn pretty much anything from YouTube. I'm already a little addicted and working on my second one.  

Beyond that, I have been steadily increasing my interactions on Instagram, although I had been doing that for some time before the ~oUtBrEaK~

I really do value all the relationships I have made through instagram. People I've never and probably will never meet in person uplift me on a daily basis. I honestly feel a friendship growing with so many people I consider strangers! And it's all through this silly little app...I think this will become more and more common over the next year(s) of social distancing. It sounds scary, but it's just not what we're used to. I hate to sound like an optimist- but I think at least some good will end up coming out of this strangeness and scariness. 

An old friend and fellow artist, Hailey, ended up joining me on my instagram live last night. It was totally serendipitous, but we had a lot of fun. We were both drawing, and decided to go live together. We were chatting about how things have changed because of COVID: people living their lives virtually, how much this has actually helped to create a sense of community and connection, and how people will be more open minded and accepting of others after this. Hailey said, "You know me, I'm an optimist and that hasn't really changed!"..Oh I love you, Hailey.

Illustration by Carmen Nacher👆

It's hard not to be all doom and gloom right now, and there is a lot of scary fuckedupness going on...and I strongly believe we need to fight that bullshit...but I save most of my political ranting for facebook. I have proposed petitions and tried to engage people in political action through various platforms. All in all, I try to be balanced and honest in the content I'm putting out right now. I think a lot of makers and artists have struggled in recent weeks with what content they want to present to the world. You don't want to come off as insensitive or "salesy" right now...but that is also how most of us survive. I think of it like a GoFundme: some people use it because their house burnt down, and some people use it because they want a boob job, but that doesn't really matter because no one is forced to contribute 🤷🏼‍♀️

Obviously, be sensitive to your communities needs right now. The first virtual fair I did, through Come Together MKE, was built for that very purpose. Artists sell goods through their instagram, with a percentage of their profits donated to a designated non profit/local business staff. At that exact time it was such a relief to feel like I could keep practicing my art, keep running a business AND help people in need. 

That said, for the Renegade Virtual Fair this weekend, I'll be donating 10% of my saled to Voces De La Frontera, a grassroots organization fighting for immigrant and low-wage workers' rights. So what will I be DOING for this live stream, you ask? Well, my plan is to do a studio tour on Friday, and a live wall painting on Saturday. I just moved in to my studio about a month ago, so I have been spending a lot of time getting it ready to function and making it cute 😘

To be honest, the concept of going live on instagram seems a little strange to me-why would someone want to watch someone do their makeup for 20 minutes...but I've also caught myself watching it 😂 So I hope that my live streams this weekend will be engaging, fun and mildly entertaining. This is just going to be a fun experiment for all of us! I plan to share all the artwork by fellow artists I have hanging in my studio, introduce you to my unicorn collection (yes), show off some new products, and maybe even dig through some old sketchbooks😍

I hope to see you Friday or Saturday on my story! Til then, stay safe, eat good food, and, uh, idk chill.