year 2017, week 19.
Thoughts on home. And Patreon.
Monday.
To best communicate my up coming project I need to figure out what makes a home so memorable. Of all my childhood, the homes I lived in are what I remember most. I can remember little details about the stairs, that one room my brother and I shared that barely fit our bunk beds, etc.
The rest of my memory from that time is just bits and pieces. So why does the home itself linger in my mind? I think a big part of it is the fact that the sights and smells and sounds of the place is a summation of my time there. In remembering what it looked like I can remember what my childhood looked like. After saying it out loud (or writing it down in this case) it doesn’t really make sense.
Tuesday.
As a father with a young kid and another on the way I look to my home to be a place of refuge for my family. Between this and that it feels like we are never there. But the best part about being home is that when you are there it feels right. Normal. We don’t sit there thinking about how best to make it feel safe and warm. That is built in. All the other stuff we want around the house or out front or in the backyard are purely for additional joy. Not for necessity.
So why talk about this? Well like I’ve said I want to talk about what it is that makes a house a home. So I am going to be scratching at ideas. Once I get to a core meaning I will then start to work at how I can represent it in a photograph.
Wednesday.
So yeah, I setup a Patreon page. It was both an impulse and a long thought out process. I watch and follow quite a few YouTuber’s and have seen them take on Patreon as a form of financial support of their art. Some of these people make videos/stories and some make art (and post videos of that process). So part of my decision was their constant “hey support me on Patreon” pitch in their videos. Another long thought out part of the process has been my self-publishing and lack of salesman drive. I love making the work and over the past year or more really let the salesman aspect just fall by the wayside. My excuse was that I have a day job for money. Recently I have been realizing how that mindset has set me on a cycle of either giving my passion (writing and photography) away OR just not sharing it.
The impulse part came on just committing to the idea that I will let people pay $1 per month to see what I am working on, read about the process, and get some postcards or prints in the mail. If they pay $5 a month they will get that plus every quarter I will send them a book or print. That is it. Just let people pay as little or as much as they want to let me keep creating. I hope it works. Here is the link:
Thursday.
Patreon. Now that I am there how I will keep them informed? Right now I am leaning toward podcast style audio recordings of me talking through a project idea and videos of me working on laying out books, sequencing, etc. I also will be writing a bit more here on Medium and sharing those stories on Patreon.
I know Medium launched memberships but all the info on what their plans are and how it would benefit or impact me has been so sketchy I can’t commit to it.
Friday.
Home and Patreon are an interesting theme. It is interesting how a week will play out. But then again that is nothing compared to what is happening in the political news here on the USofA.
What will next week bring?
