Appraisal

Well this is awkward - I’ve just realised I didn’t write any blog posts in 2024. Unacceptable! I think… Or is it just fine? I was advised early on that from an SEO perspective it was a good idea to write blog posts regularly to make sure I was attaching all the language, the concenpts, the cultural material and references that I wanted to associate with my work in one place so people who identified with those things would be able to find me. The website was to become a hub of everything I wanted my work to represent. I still essentially like this idea but am I maybe not naturally built to tend this pottery garden as well as it needs/deserves? The idea of making a website that is a window into my world of pottery that I make and curate and it’s all me me me because that’s what a Nicholas Dover website kind of has to be is maybe where I need to be a bit careful - I think what’s happening is I’m feeling like I’m the person nobody likes after a couple of glasses of wine harping on about how well they’ve been doing recently, maybe humblebragging a bit to try (and fail) to mask the gloatfest but essentially just letting everyone in earshot know how pleased they are with their latest work. But THAT IS what I need to be doing! I need to make things I like to the point where I am willing to celebrate my idea of success with you all, while also asking for your money. Sometimes it feels great, I’m happy with the pots, I take photos, I ask if anyone would like to swap some of their money for the pots in the photos. But the pots that don’t sell can begin, over time as they gather dust on the shelf, to take on this slightly ghoulish look as though they actually have an ugliness that I’ve just failed to see, so deafened and blinded was I by my awful nauseating self-congratulation but now I’m starting to see them as the horrible lumps they are, as I fear everyone else sees them.

Now, I’m not looking for the slightest bit of sympathy or refutal of any of this - I’m quite sure it’s just a natural cycle of pride and self-doubt that all solo makers go through periodically - but it does go some way, for me, towards explaining why I sometimes just don’t feel right in putting out another wave of promotion, but maybe this is the part I need to address? Perhaps I could just view it as communication rather than promotion? If I’m just letting passers by see my actions and sharing what I do, I’m not asking for attention, I’m just not hiding. So a recontextualisation needs to be made in my head and maybe just a more constant flow of information and communication so there is no sense of “push”, just a turnover of motion. Thanks for the pep talk. x