The contests and the community made me stay on. It can seem like a cold place but if you look for people with similar interests who obviously put love into their posts you can slowly find your niche. There is also a lot of great advice out there on how to achieve on steemit with persistence. I am not going to pretend there is not a financial aspect to it. The idea that I can make money from my artwork is extreemly inspiring as it is for many artists on here. Thanks to steemit I can purchase more materiels, rent an exhibition studio and spend more time on my artwork. Just imagine the creativity this place is engendering in that way for so many people in many fields!