This is my new blog and website. I’ll honestly be surprised if anyone ever reads this post, but I find writing things out to be a helpful process and will do it for myself. Why a website with a blog? Why wordpress?

I have been grappling with the following:

• My website was expired and I needed a new one. It had been on SquareSpace, and before that Webflow. In the immediate future, I wanted the site to act mainly as a hub for links, to provide a succinct bio, and clearly direct to my Behance and LinkedIn.
• I’ve kept a casual art blog on tumblr for years, nearly a decade as I write this. I love the tagging system on tumblr, something I’ve found all other social media lacks. But watching how social media platforms have evolved recently, I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay there. I’ve watched the Twitter mess since Musk bought it, and been on Instagram long enough to remember the days when the feed wasn’t filled with ads and “recommended” posts. When it valued still images and video wasn’t king. Now even scrolling through a person’s profile there are ads!
  • All this to say, I didn’t want to be beholden to the whims of tech giants (I say while recognizing WordPress is a tech giant, but one that seems stable). If tumblr tanked and the blog disappeared, I would be sad to lose it. So I turn to WordPress. WordPress feels like a rock in comparison. And it has a CMS system, with tagging and post categories, exactly what I was looking for.
• I like having an art blog to share my creations online. I like it being a quiet place that doesn’t get much attention and acts as an archive. I like that it’s a way to share art that doesn’t feel quite so subject to the grinding and anxious fast pace of social media. My art blog is a place to share at my own pace.

So…

• I was between Webflow, WordPress, and SquareSpace. Mostly leaning toward Webflow, as there is so much control over the design (I am a UI designer after all!) But, when comparing how CMS is handled between these (and the price tag), WordPress won. And it didn’t make sense to pay for two services, one for a blog and one for a professional site.
• One day I’ll add current design case studies, but for now, this is mostly a vessel for a blog, a general about, and links on where to find me. A centralized place.
• Moving my art blog from tumblr to WordPress feels like a kind of growing up. Of taking what I care about (my personal projects and creative explorations) more seriously. I’ve been telling myself: treat what matters like it matters. Meaning, if it matters to me, don’t take it too lightly, don’t undermine yourself, and present it in ways that show you care about it.

So, here we go!