Welcome to Playing Favorites
I make art about time passing. You might have seen me around.
“Playing Favorites” was the title of the Tumblr account I created on April 6th, 2010. Might as well stick with tradition.
My name is Alaina Stocker. You can find my art portfolio on my website, alainaarts.com. I am an artist and art community organizer, which means I exhibit around Seattle and also organize events, meetups, and shows myself.
I dance ballet, boulder, read a lot, and go to therapy. I have ADHD, and I am a recovering perfectionist and people pleaser. I was deeply Christian for around 7 of my formative young adult years, and I’m still unpacking that time in my life now as a person in my early 30’s. I am polyamorous. I love cats.
Those are some facts meant to entice you into following along with this blog and newsletter of mine. To me, it is an online artist process journal, a tool I picked up in art school (alongside keeping physical sketchbooks - see below) that has fallen by the wayside with the changing tides of social media. It is also a place to share personal stories that inform my artwork, improve my writing, document life for my future self, keep me motivated to make things, and create connections with other creatively-minded people. It is fuel to keep the fire going consistently with less flare ups and burnouts.
For your amusement, and for the times in the future when I lose sight of why I started this, here’s my goals for this platform:
Share my artwork intentionally.
Update when I have work up around town.
Write about my process with abandon.
Be freer about what aspects of my life I share.
Edit only for fun.
Build community intentionally the way I do in real life.
Let change and connections happen organically.
Share other people’s artwork that inspires me.
Indulge in research rabbit holes.
Use Instagram only as a way for folks to contact me or find my website.
Why this online format
I am the wrong person to discuss social media. I’ve never done it terribly successfully, because I’ve always had a wariness and resentment of things marketed to artists as essential tools for making money off our work. That hasn’t stopped me from becoming addicted to Instagram, of course. Especially as I began my foray into treating my art as a business, and working with other small businesses to monetize the platform. I have made sales, connected with other artists, promoted shows, and generally furthered my career through Instagram. I still need a way to do that, so I don’t see myself deleting my account entirely. At least not until something else reliably comes along.
What I would like to change is my relationship to social media. I smiled so much the last several days reading through other creators’ Substacks and writing snippets as I felt inspired. I haven’t had such a good time on the internet in years. My mental health is important, and I’m so incredibly happy to return to an outlet that requires more effort than being spoon-fed bright colors and information I never needed in the first place by an algorithm.
Keeping a journal
The habit I never fell out of is keeping physical sketchbooks. I recently found a pile of old ones going back over a decade, all made the same way I still do: loose drawing paper bound with embroidery thread and glued between two pieces of cardboard. It ain’t pretty but it certainly gets the job done, and I don’t feel awful when something inevitably spills all over it. Don’t try to buy me a different kind of journal; I won’t use it.
My life is in these books: these days mostly journaling of feelings, to-do lists, plans for my week, and ideas. I will use what I put in these books as research for what ends up in my online journal.
Whatever will be
I have learned through trial and error that my art practice must be protected fiercely and kept separate from making money whenever possible. How exactly that plays out is a topic I examine frequently in my own practice and while working with the local art community, so I imagine it will make its way into my explorations here. This also means I won’t turn on paid subscribers until, or if it ever feels right to do so.
Thank you for reading and taking what you wish from this blog/journal/newsletter. I am proud of myself for sharing, because projects that feel this selfish are often what I cut first from my life. I will only share what I want, when I want, and I hope my art and writing make you feel things. Please check out my website and invite me for coffee or to have a studio visit.
website: alainaarts.com
email: alainaarts@gmail.com
insta: @gobbeldigook
Thanks for sharing! ✨