MUST READ POST!! An Interview with the Steemit Artist @organduo - What Makes Him Tick? Part 2

@organduo, (Real-life Name: Vidas Pinkevicius) J. S. Bach – Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 547

We are so privileged to welcome the multi-art-talented @organduo to the Steemit Art Centre. Yesterday, I posted the first part of his fascinating interview. Here is a link for you to read it:

https://steemit.com/artstorm/@deemarshall/must-read-post-an-interview-with-the-steemit-artist-organduo-what-makes-him-tick

There was plenty of positive feedback about the first part of the interview so let's move on.

Here is the second part of the Steemit Art Centre interview with @organduo.

Dee:

Do you foresee your Steemit input developing in niches other than your Pinky and Spiky cartoon strip drawing?

Vidas:

To continue from the previous from the previous question I didn’t answer, since I’m drawing every day, who knows, maybe in a few months I will have enough material for a book, yes. But more important than having material for a book is that you have to have “eyeballs”. Other people that will want to read this book. So I’m not in a rush or in a hurry to publish a book of comic strips because first, you have to earn the privilege of finding the audience. And only then if the audience is eager to read your new book then you may develop it and publish it.

Of course, Steemit is very good for sharing your drops of ideas every day and it’s only natural that those ideas can accumulate into a book later on. So on Steemit, you can do anything you want. I was thinking also about reposting my organ relating articles or even podcasts on DSound. But so far I haven’t done this extensively, just an experiment because I’m not sure if my audience will be interested in to organ related activities that I do because I have another blog which is called 'organduo.lt' (http://www.organduo.lt/) where Ausra and I post podcasts and blog posts about the art of organ playing for people from eighty-nine countries every day. But I couldn't be certain that this could not be done on Steemit or some other kind of experiments because I kind of try to be curious about everything and if you keep curious you will come up with great ideas and maybe your curiosity will lead you to a lot of other avenues besides drawing. That’s a possibility too.

Dee:

Over the past years Steemit has changed remarkably. There have been a couple of hard forks and it has become a viable social media. How do you see Steemit developing in the future?

Vidas:

Well, I think Steemit has to get rid of a lot of spamming content, lots of bots which you could buy votes or sell votes. It doesn’t elevate the community. It doesn’t help to grow the humanity of the platform, right? If it was intended as an investment platform, then it is all great, right? You can delegate your Steem power to some voting bot and you will get a daily amount of Steem which is by the way much larger than what you would get from curating or voting content yourself.

But I was also experimenting with various delegation tools and now I think that I have a responsibility to support my community on Steemit in a greater way other than simply delegating my Steem power because then nobody really wins but me and it’s quite selfish and that’s how a lot of whales behave in Steemit so I hope in the future more and more people will kind of embrace humanity of the platform and even though it’s not the most rewarding financially act of up-voting somebody else, right? Because before, a couple of years ago it was a 50-50 split and author would get 50 percent of revenue from that up-vote and uploader, the curator would get 50 percent back so it was good to up-vote other people, at least for an equal amount. Now, you could only get no more than 25 percent when you curate and up-vote content so whales I think have to be quite unselfish to do that. And I hope more and more people up-vote great content from the community. Especially content created by newbies. People who are just starting who need a lot of motivation to continue because it’s hard to make decent revenue on Steemit. You have to find somebody who would have a lot of Steem Power to up-vote you. So it’s a circle I think. You have to do good for other people and only then you will receive the benefit of other people doing good things to you. It’s like other areas in life I think.

Dee:

Could you please choose one/some examples of your drawing art to show us?

Vidas:

Of course, I am very happy to send you or direct you to some of my Pinky and Spiky drawings that are on Steemit. They are very dear to me and sometimes I post them out of noticing things around me. Sometimes other people around me would say some curious things and I will at the end of the day write down those things. And I could make a cartoon or a comic strip out of those few lines, right? That other people said. Sometimes Ausra, @oganduo's wife, @laputis, and myself would talk like that. Sometimes I would actually notice in the middle of our conversation that it’s a great idea for a drawing, while we were talking, right?

And Ausra would do the same too. Sometimes she would quote me, I would quote her, and this conversation would be quite funny at times. So I recommend everybody to start noticing things around themselves. I got this idea from two people I think. I have to mention Seth Godin who was a great inspiration for me as a blogger who recommended that every person should blog every day even though nobody cares, nobody would read the material that this person would create because the practice of writing down things that you notice is pure gold basically. And also his idea about failing in public is so important to me. Because mistakes are not fatal. They are only in our imagination. So that's what I try to do also with my blog.

And then another person is cartoonist Lynda Barry who teaches of course a few courses on making comics and she has published some fantastic books about comic art and she teaches her students to write down like a six or eight minute diary where you would at the end of the day, or in the beginning of the day, you would write down six or eight things you saw, six or eight things you did, and six or eight things you heard as much as possible.

So inevitably a few of those things will be quite curious and sometimes quite funny and you could make drawings and comics all day long if you just kept noticing things. Of course we don’t have that time available to us but it’s I think important to write down things we see, we hear, and we do every day. Then we can choose at least one interesting idea to make a drawing about and share it on Steemit.

Dee:

Are there any other ideas that you would like to add?

Vidas:

I would like to just need to conclude with the following idea. I think the Steemit platform is great if it can accommodate you know, the idea of support beginning creators, not only the really wealthy whales but people who are just starting out.

Because in developing countries even five dollars per day would be a big motivation to continue to share things on Steemit and for people who like to draw or to create art in some way then I think it’s ideal platform because you see if you make a picture like a photo and post it on Steemit it might not be unique because anybody else could make that picture, right? But if you draw this is unique, nobody else can replicate the same thing that you do, it’s your own unique perspective on life. So if you keep doing this regularly and even every day little by little I think you will start to be noticed by other people.

At first of course they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. I think Mahatma Gandhi said the following sentence about the development of the idea I think. So we are now in the idea sharing economy now because you can share things and get rewarded on Steemit which is an absolutely amazing thing if you just think about it for a second.

As a blogger you didn’t have this tool just a few years before. You had to write your blog post, you had to convert those readers into I don’t know email subscribers, then you had to sell them something, sell them advertisement which actually would lead your readers away from your own posts and/or you could sell them your own products or services which is a big struggle for a lot of people. But on Steemit you could actually get rewarded for doing the one thing that you do and love. For creating and sharing your art. So keep doing guys what you are doing. This is amazing creative community that Dee is developing around her and if you keep supporting each other, if we keep supporting each other I think big things will start to happen pretty soon. It’s like an avalanche, right? And that’s how ideas spread actually.

Keep experimenting and failing in public. Don’t play it safe. Don't just create art for which nobody will criticize you. Because if nobody criticizes you, nobody will care deeply about you and your art.

Don’t worry if you are not professional, if you are just a beginner who draws more like a child. In fact, we could learn many things from children, things we tend to forget as we grow up because of societal norms. Things like laughing more and creating art for no other reason than having fun.

If you feel drawn somehow to create art or make music or dance or invent something, remember that this is not some random idea. This might well be your mission, you calling. The thing in fact which makes us more human.

Ignore the naysayers. You are not for everyone and so am I. The person who fails the most wins because this kind of person tries the most.

Take part in #artstorm contests that @deemarshall so generously organizes as well as in other contests, such as @cobmaximus Steemit Webcomics contest and other competitions for creators. This is an amazing way to grow together as a community. In fact, I’m so excited about the upcoming Communities feature on Steemit. I think this will bring new creative outlets for creators.

So I’m happy to create and share my Pinky and Spiky cartoons everyday with you. I do it wherever and whenever I see the opening in my day. In fact, today I made a drawing about how Pinky and Spiky are crashing teddy bear's picnic while waiting at the mechanic’s shop to change the tires of my car. Who knows maybe a new comic about Pinky and Spiky changing car tires will be born...

And if you love these quirky characters, consider taking part in our Weekly Pinky And Spiky Drawing Contest. I’m looking forward to seeing your art and supporting you.

And remember, when you practice miracles happen...

That concludes part 2 of our interview with @organduo.

It was very enjoyable to meet him.

One last thing!

Please, please, please spare this post an upvote and resteem.