Waves are Wednesdays. And they always will be.

Since this is my first Waves are Wednesdays post on the newsletter, I should probably lay the foundation in the event that someone happens upon my newsletter with no sense of the history and is like ‘Um, no, waves are a propagating dynamic disturbance of one or more quantities and Wednesdays are the third day of the week according to international standard ISO 8601 and you are using faulty or flawed reasoning to draw equivalence between the two’.

To that person, I would say:

Waves are Wednesdays started as a way for me to say ‘thank you’ to the people that were picking up what I was stepping in…or was it putting down what I was smelling? Anyways. It was a chance to use a Facebook post to say thank you to those people (i.e. you). I won’t be using Facebook any more- but it’s just the platform that is changing. The enormity of my gratitude remains the same.

In fact, that gratitude is part of why I’m making this switch. It’s because so many people believe in me that I feel empowered to push forward, past the boundaries of comfort that I have stayed behind for, well, my whole life really.

While I’ve shared my frustrations recently about Meta’s platforms (in particular, Facebook), I can’t deny that it’s given me a pretty easy place to share my artwork and engage with a group of people outside of my physical community. Stepping away from that means that I’m going to have to work harder to maintain and grow than I would if I had just decided to stick around and continue to post photographs there. I have to trust that what I am creating is actually good enough to share with the world and not just a handful of people that were my algorithmic match.

I’m excited about this; but also, my feelings of excitement are tinged with feelings of uncertainty. I’m leaving something familiar and comfortable for…what is outside of that? I don’t know. And that’s exciting! Terrifying…and exciting!

This newsletter is me gathering my chips as I look to push them all to the center of the table. If this thing is going to become what I want it to (a base of operations from which I am able to fiscally exist while creating and sharing art), then I not only have to consistently create compelling art, but I will have to do something I have never been comfortable with nor done well: I have to be my biggest salesman and self-promoter.

That’s not easy for me. I’ve always been content to stay in the background, under the radar, out of the spotlight. But to do what I want to do with my art and with my creativity, I have to break out of that mindset. I have to shatter that mold. I have to get comfortable in the sun.

And to bring it back to ‘Waves are Wednesdays’- I won’t be able to do it without you. Your support, encouragement, wisdom, insights, stories…those points of connection are what bring me out from the shadows.

I can’t wait to see where this goes. But wherever it goes…Waves will always be Wednesdays.

Thanks again, folks, for everything! I appreciate everyone that has taken the time to sign up already for The Deans List (and a quick note- I do have e-mail subscription confirmation in place, so you will have to confirm your subscription). If you want to continue to follow my journey and haven’t yet- you can click the button below and get ready for a wild ride!

See you around.

Jason