Why Substack + Some Nature-Inspired Art That Is More Than Sunsets and Flowers

I have had many people ask me why the sudden and relentless shift to Substack? I don’t blame them. It happened quick and I came on strong. There are so many reasons why I dove into Substack head first and with reckless abandon and am so, so happy about it.

The most important reason why I started a Substack is because I miss long-form posts about art and the art market. I started Art I Saw and Liked with longer posts about art I saw and liked. It was really that simple. But as my business grew, we came out of Covid, and life happened, my IG became something else and IG itself became something else. Reels happened. Gah, I hate Reels. The algorithm changed, or continually changes all the time, which leads me to the second reason why I joined Substack.

IG is hard to keep up with. It is hard to build a real community. And IG is no longer about the visual. I don’t really know what it is about these days but I know it is a time suck, a mood suck, a joy suck, a productivity suck, etc… You get the gist. It sucks. But it also does not really do all that much for my business. Outside of a handful of engaged followers who are really interested in what I have to offer, I am not sure how it really moves the needle for my business. That makes me sound like a capitalist pig, but I have to be choosey about how I spend my time and a key criterion is that everything I do has to be absolutely necessary or have very high impact, and that leads me to my third reason.

I want to use Substack as platform to reach many more people than I can under my current business model. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love that I do, which is helping novice art collectors find and collect art that speaks to their soul. I love watching clients discover an artist or work that brings them closer to a fuller expression of who they are. I really want to be able to do that on a larger scale. I currently work on a one-to-one basis and I will always do that. But I would love to add a one-to-many branch to my business. My hope is that my Substack becomes a place where many novice art collectors from across the country can go to access my eye, my knowledge, my network, and my expertise. I believe there is a huge group of people out there who want to live with fantastic art from real, working artists that inspires their minds, their creativity, their families, and great conversation but they just don’t know where to go to get it and don’t feel confident in their choices. Displaying art in your home and in the spaces you occupy makes you vulnerable. I have found that people want to make choices that make them feel safe, confident, seen, and understood, even if they are visually risky. It’s a weird balance and I want to help folks find it.

That is the purpose of my Substack newsletter. Spread the word. Share it with your friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues. Please take a moment to forward this newsletter to one person who you think would enjoy reading it. And if you know of any great artists I should feature, please drop me a message!

And now on to some great art all under $10,000…

Benedict Sheuer (b. 1992, American)

I love these silk wall-dependent sculptures from Benedict Sheuer. They flutter when you walk by them. They are so gentle and graceful and vulnerable. I really want to hang a cluster, or dare I say, flock, of them asymmetrically on a large wall.

Corinne Slade (b. 1998, Montclair, NJ)

This new body of work from Corinne Slade deals with the act of deadheading—the practice of pruning flowers to encourage new growth—a powerful metaphor for personal renewal and transformation. Her new exhibition opens TODAY (!!) at COL Gallery in San Francisco. Slade is a young artist but has shown at Frieze London and Felix Art Fair, and the work is still under $5k!

Josh Callaghan (b. 1969, Doylestown, PA)

Josh Callaghan has recently come on my radar and I find his work so elegant in it engagement with the human-environment relationship. His Twig Index series takes us into the fourth dimension as it harkens to human evolution while his Root Ball asks us what future humans and future Nature might look like if we continue on our current trajectory. Callaghan’s work masterfully looks back and forward simultaneously to helps figure out what we should do in the now.