An Introduction

Launching a newsletter about art, culture and building a creative life.

Welcome!

Hi there! I am Joe Hedges, a contemporary artist, professor, arts nonprofit founder, father, and former major label recording artist. Welcome to the inside of the weird and wobbly Venn diagram of my ongoing creative adventure. Come on in and have a seat. What are we doing here? I created this Substack for three main reasons:

1. Creative Work Should be Rewarded

Before the word Blog was coined those of us who liked to write saw both the power and and then the peril of writing and thinking via social media. Initially, the expansion and commodification of the written word online helped creative thinkers and artists build audiences and directly benefit from the thoughts and ideas that were shared. Regretfully, post-Web 2.0 almost as soon as Facebook introduced the “like” button and social media adoption accelerated, the digital spaces we loved began to morph into the atomized, polarized, algorithmic hellscapes we know today.

The internet we have now mostly benefits corporations and advertisers rather than artists, and yet it is powered by the creativity of all of us. Creativity makes us human, makes us feel alive and connects us all. To put it simply, I think anyone creating anything for a public audience should be rewarded for their time and efforts beyond exposure. Substack is a step in that direction. Creative work is work. If you agree, I would love it if you join me on this journey.

2. Online Communities Should be Supportive

Writing is a way to think. Because most writing on social media is limited to particular length and format—and these formats change frequently based on the whims of our “tech overlords”—there’s little space or time to really reflect in deep ways. Think of this as a different kind of space. There’s a fire going. It’s relative quiet. There’s just a few interesting people here. I’ll pour you a drink.

On social media agorithmic pressures provide perverse incentives to argue and bicker and generally shame each other. When writing suffers, thinking suffers. The early internet of message boards and even BBS’s (Bulletin Board Systems) provides an archetype for what supportive online communities can look like. But this isn’t just nostalgia; it’s also a vision for a slower and more generous digital future. Here I am hoping to cultivate a community where ideas and opinions can be shared openly with a spirit of support and generosity.

3. I Think You’ll Enjoy My Stories & Ideas

This is me in a low, slow voice repeating “you will enjoy my stories and ideas” over and over many times until you are fully hypnotized. Ha! Or, you won’t enjoy this as much as I do and in that case you can simply unsubscribe anytime.

So what is this Substack about anyway? It’s about the past, present and future, of course. Let me explain. I have had some amazing opportunities in (what I hope is only) the first half of my life and I’d love to share some of those more intimate anecdotes with you. Paid subscribers will receive personal stories (from my past) including:

• Growing up as a progressive in an Ohio town now associated with “hillbillies”

• How I turned my teenage angst about the death of my father into a career as a singer/songwriter in my 20’s

• Lessons learned from building creative communities in the arts

This newsletter is about the present. Free subscribers will receive updates on my current projects including:

• My visual art that explores the human relationship with technology by merging painting and new media installation

• Developing and implementing experimental pedagogy as a professor of Painting/Intermedia at a large public university

• Running an arts nonproft in my small town in Washington state

• The music I continue to write and record (and should probably release one day)

This newsletter is also about the future of art, technology and culture. Call it armchair philosophy except I may be sitting on a cheap wooden stool (and eating Lucky Charms straight out of the bag instead of smoking a pipe). Some of these posts will include:

• How painting promotes physical presence in the digital age

• A.I. generated art and its future impact on the art world (I’m just thinking four million think-pieces on this is not yet enough!)

• Social media and the current state of online discourse

And more! Is it too much? I don’t know (this where that swinging golden pocket watch comes back into play). We will find out together. I am interested in hearing how my writing and thinking might be helpful or entertaining to you.

Finally, I am so grateful to have sustained an audience for my work across a variety of media for most of my life, and I want to have more direct communication with friends and supporters and smart people like you. For those of you who I’ve known for a long time, I miss sharing ideas with you online. For newcomers, let’s think and laugh and cry about the world together. What else can do we do?

Still thinking about Lucky Charms

Thanks for reading!

Yours,
Joe Hedges

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