🏝️ Summer Break: Equip Story is going on a two-week sabbatical. If you’re at Gen Con this year, I’ll be at the Indie Press Revolution booth (#449) signing copies of ALL-CARDS on Saturday, August 1st at 2 pm! Otherwise, see you back in your inbox on August 7th.
I’m told I give useful advice to artists. When I talk to artists, they often have two or three projects in mind and they’re not sure which one to pursue. I help them by considering (1) what do they enjoy making (2) what do they hope to achieve and (3) what are their artistic strengths?
Am I able to advise myself like this?
Ha ha ha! What a question.
I can see the forest for the trees, but only for others. When I look around my own artistic forest, I just see grass, bark, and a portable barbecue destroyed by a bear. I almost never take the advice I give to others, even when I know it would be a good idea. When it comes to art, I’m a whim guy. I love a strong whim. I lie down on the boogie board of craft and let a whim glide be to the shore… or flip me over and almost drown me. My hard drive is full of artistic misfires.
So take the following general advice I have for artists with a grain of salt. I don’t think I’ll be pursuing this path myself, but I think others would be smart to boogie board on this wave.
My general, entirely unsolicited advice to all artists everywhere right now is… make local art.
Make something inspired by where you live. Make something intended for your real-life neighbors. It can be any kind of art: a painting, a book, a movie, a video game, you name it. The medium doesn’t matter nearly as much as the hometown setting, the local vibe, and the sense this work could only spring from your community.
I’m imagining art about growing up in your town. Or about the corruption in local politics. Or about being a long-suffering fan of your local team. Or about how much your town has changed over the years. Or about how little your town has changed. Or about how the abandoned mall has become fully haunted. Or about the local oddballs who hang out in the bar, the corner store parking lot, the farmer’s market, or heaven help you, the flea market. (Just kidding. I luv 2 flea.) Reference specific restaurants and hangouts. The more specific, the better. Here’s why…
The culture feels more national and global than ever. There was a time when it was common to watch local TV news, read the local newspaper, and listen to local radio hosts. Those outlets are becoming more and more niche. We’re more likely to follow national politics via randos on TikTok or by reading email newsletters with international audiences. We’re more likely to listen to globally popular music in the car or podcasts hosted by famous comedians. We play video games produced by international conglomerates with random teens who shout obscenities at us from around the world.
The trend is towards all people eating from the same cultural trough. Not to foster communication, learn across boundaries, or create a sense of global community. Hell no! It’s to get us furious at each other to generate ad revenue. To harvest data at maximum scale. To suck the world’s creativity into generative AI. Let’s face it, the internet sucks as a place to distribute art. Social media algorithms filter outside links. Social media algorithms change on a dime, radically altering the fortunes of artists at random. Most platforms pay fractions of pennies for views. Most platforms reward art made cheaply and quickly to hack audience attention. Are you really building an audience online? Or are you entering a casino that benefits a few mega corporations?
If you live in a decent sized town or city, there are so many local outlets for art. There are bars that need bands. There are comedy clubs with an open mic night. There are coffee shops with poetry nights. There are theaters that put on local plays. There are zine fests with tables to fill. There are art galleries with openings in their schedules. There are film festivals looking for new movies to screen. There are board game stores with homebrew nights. There are puppetry slams. That’s a thing! There are so many ways to produce and distribute art locally that benefit your craft and your community. Imagine meeting people in person whose life was changed for the better by your art. Not just a comment. A handshake. A laugh. A memory.
I can sense the skepticism as I write this. How are you going to make a living performing poetry slams and making zines? I would argue the same point about starting a YouTube channel or a podcast, since you’re so statistically unlikely to succeed, but let’s consider this. Do you know the 1000 fans theory? Basically, if 1000 people are willing to give you $100 a year for your art, that’s $100,000 a year. What’s the shortest path to finding those 1000 fans? Here’s my thinking. If your art resonates with the community, the community will respond. If you write a terrific play or shoot a great short film about your hometown, your local media may give you coverage. They like running “local artist makes good” stories. It’s an easy pitch for you and an easy win for them.
So let’s say you get interviewed on local radio and local TV about your hometown art. At the end of the interview, you give a call to action: sign-up for my newsletter to see my whatever and get updates. If the show’s audience is 20,000 people and 5% sign-up, that’s 1000 people on your newsletter. Not all those 1000 people will be true fans, but some percentage of them will be. Slowly but surely, one project at a time, you’ll become a local voice. Someone people from your town want to hear from. Neighbors recommend you to other neighbors. One of my favorite podcasts is LA Podcast, a great independent source for progressive local Los Angeles news, and it was recommended to me by my literal next door neighbor.
And here’s the best part about that local audience. No major company will stand between you and them. No one will be able to extort you to reach them. You’ll have their trust, because you’re one of them. You’re not just some rando who makes videos about Star Wars for other randos. You’re part of a flesh-and-blood scene, which can make real change in the community.
Also, depending on the kind of art you make, you might be able to get an arts grant! Local governments and arts organizations sometimes offer them. Are you a Cleveland-based artist who makes transformative experiences for Cleveland locals and visitors? How would you like between $300-$500K to make your art??
I’m not saying don’t post your stuff online ever. (Though if you were strictly off-line, that’d be very punk rock of you.) I would absolutely post on local Facebook groups, etc., with appropriate local keywords. Your neighbors are very much online. We’re all online. The distinction I’m making is to create art designed with locals in mind, wherever you can find them. As opposed to art designed for a national or international audience, reached primarily via the internet.
Speaking of which, as an ironic stretch goal, your local work might resonate with a wider audience! A lot of celebrated artists began locally. Jim Henson began his puppetry career on a local TV station doing a kids show. Chappell Roan performed locally a lot in her early career alongside posting videos to YouTube. John Waters’ early films were all shot in Baltimore, not Hollywood. There are too many comedians to name who succeeded in local clubs and theaters across the country before achieving national fame.
Why don’t I make local art, if I think it’s such a good idea? Didn’t you read my explanation up top? I put a lot of thought into it!! (No, I didn’t.) But also, the natural ideas falling out of my head are not driven by locality. They’re driven by dissecting and rearranging the tenets of genre and media, because I’m a formalist. The long answer is that, to me, my “home” is wherever I live with my wife Amanda and our tiny tiger Maddie. My current “hometown” is Los Angeles, a city I love, but still feels vast and unknowable to me, even after 20 years. Deep in my heart, I still think of Buffalo, NY, where I grew up, to be my true hometown. But I haven’t lived there in decades and what I’m outlining here is designed for an artist who currently lives in the place they’re making art about.
I think there’s a feeling among folks my generation and younger that we live on the internet. That we’re terminally, permanently online. But we don’t live online. We may spend a lot of time on our phones, but our meat bodies still live in the real world. (For now, lol!) I believe our hometowns are worth celebrating and I know I’m not alone. If your surroundings inspire you, I can’t think of a better time to think locally. Forget the global part of that idiom.
🎲 Your Turn: Shout-out your hometown or where you currently live. What makes it a great place? What makes you proud to live there or have grown up there? What’s a local delicacy visitors must try? (If you’re in Buffalo, go to Ted’s Hot Dogs. It’s the best hot dog in America. Fight me.) I’d love to hear from you! Reply directly to this email or leave a comment by hitting the orange button below.
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