spirit, n. : 4. The animating intelligence or sentient element or aspect of a person, as the seat of action, reason, and feeling, and as the source of desire; the will. (OED)
Welcome to Spirit, my experiment in expanding the potential of tech beyond social media doomscrolling, feelings of isolation, and all the other negative aspects of our Internet-addicted world we take for granted.
Each week I will send you a little dose of art, music, or whatever else strikes my fancy. It may be something I’m working on, or simply something that inspires me.
My hope is that this will help expand our perspective, and remind us life is filled with beauty and joy 🌿
Solidarity beyond screens
In a way, it’s ironic: I hope to build a community through the Internet, that is searching for meaning beyond the Internet. Yet, this remains the most efficient way to disseminate information we have, so why not try and bend technology to our uniquely human needs?
At this point, I don’t need to cite statistics for you to intuitively understand the vicious cycle of social media addiction. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, you name it: the feeds we consume are designed to keep us all glued to our screens. We might momentarily look up, and outside the window. Maybe minutes or hours have passed. But what have we really gained from all that scrolling?…
I believe art has the unique potential to lift us out of ourselves, out of our everyday concerns, into a space of playfulness, reverence, and wonder. We crave this sort of fulfillment as humans with creative souls, even if we don’t make art ourselves. By taking a few minutes out of our week to immerse ourselves in art, we can begin to break the vicious cycle, and take another step towards a more positive mindset.
Why subscribe?
Please consider subscribing and letting some art into your inbox each week. You will receive full access to the newsletter and website. Never miss an update: every new edition of the newsletter will go directly to your inbox.
Spirit will always be free; however, if you are compelled to support the effort financially, you can buy some art on my online store, or support another artist in your neighborhood!
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
