This week was a wet and wild ride between torrential rain, flooding, and leaks in the roof. I'm still here with good stuff, though, and I'm looking for recommendations on all-weather boots.

This edition of The Hungry is in partnership with Blick Art Materials.

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Splitting the responsibilities

This week was the launch of Choose Your Words, our live course about writing and publishing for people who are afraid to write and publish.

The event went pretty well, despite some technical glitches and a fair amount of anxiety about presenting live to a group filled with mostly relative strangers and my mom (true story).

I posted on Threads about the lessons I learned, and using an example I shared with the course participants, I expanded that info into deeper thoughts: Lessons learned (so far) from running my first live course.

If you click that link, you'll notice it doesn't take you to The Hungry website. Instead, it leads to the new home of the Dave Conrey Art & Design blog and newsletter.

Why I'm splitting my attention between these two platforms

1. I want to share my journey as an artist, writer, and content creator to allow people to see behind the curtain.
2. While The Hungry is my first love, it's not the place to talk about my work (except in moments like this).
3. I stand on my soapbox and tell artists and other creatives that they should write a newsletter. This latest version of my blog and newsletter is me practicing what I preach and showing how I build and grow the newsletter, which will be a big part of what I share there.

I originally intended to use Substack for this, but you know how I feel about that platform. Instead, I'm using Beehiiv, similar to Substack but not the same. Many people have asked me about Beehiiv, and I haven't been able to tell them much about it, and that will also be a topic I address more in the future.

You can subscribe to that ​​newsletter​​ if you want, but I won't promote it too much here. In the name of science, I want the growth there to be as organic as possible.

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Smarter Faster

Are you looking for more creative goodness in your inbox? Have a look at Lisa Lammi and The Artpreneur. Lisa shares her journey as an artist and the lessons she learned and shared with other creative people.

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More things that aren't that interesting

Episode 2 of the podcast dropped, and this time, we talked about running a course, finding a business model, and how the weather might be the death of us both.

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Art Snacks: Goga Tandashvili

I know almost nothing about Goga and his work, but I am in awe of it and want you to be in awe of it, too. Go to the Instagram, watch the Reels, and thank me later.

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Biz Bites

• Your TikTok videos just got infinitely more boring.​
• I missed this news before, but Figma and Adobe have abandoned their merger, probably because the Fed feels the creative cloud company has a big enough monopoly.
• ​Nightshade is a poisonous combatant against AI art thievery. It's the software equivalent of putting butt-clenching hot sauce on your lunch to keep it from being stolen from the company refrigerator.
• Pinterest is hot again, but making it look good isn't like it used to be. That's ok because the company released a how-to on making the most of your feed.
• Want to keep people engaged with you and your content? Try putting them into a loop of everything you're into.​
• The most real headline about art fairs ever: How to Sell to the 9 People You'll Meet at an Art Fair.​
• Colossal shared its February grant opportunities. Get the money!
• I'm in a pickle with content organization, but could the answer really be as simple as Google Sheets?​

Art Bites

• ​Hungry is my favorite word. Hey, mine, too!
• Shop at Blick Art Materials and use the code CFGC at checkout to get free shipping on all orders above $59. (Partner*)
• Although the style isn't my style, whenever I see Nikita Rosalind's textile art videos, it makes me want to break out a brush and some diluted bleach.
• Kottke.org is the most OG of OG blogs, and I'm honestly shocked it's been going strong this entire time. I'm also glad they publish this collection of the best book covers from 2023.​
• Hello Kitty turned 50. Here's a look back.​
• ​Kim Gordon, possibly the coolest lady on the planet, says Bye Bye with her first single in nearly five years.
• Inside Hook shares an art idea for potential Valentine's Day gifts, but this idea could be SO GOOD for a wide variety of events. Some should definitely chase this idea!

Dessert

• ​Starting an art journal may be the best thing you do this year.​