Reddit, Slack, or a Custom App?

Hi all,

If you have been following my posts for a while, you already know that I am in the middle of building a 100% free art community.

After some thinking over the weekend and reading comments here, I think I have a fair idea of how this community may function and the kind of goals we can have as a community.

What I am yet to decide is the platform where I want to host it. Here’s the shortlist:

1. Reddit: I love the freedom but do you think Reddit has enough collaborative/ communication features for us?
2. Slack: I like the platform personally but I am not sure if many people use it. I wouldn’t want people to sign into a new platform and go through the pain of remembering to keep checking it.
3. A custom app: I can tackle all the challenges above but that may become an expensive affair, especially since I will be spending from my own pocket. I am comfortable with that but may only want to take that path if it is absolutely necessary.

Do you have any other platform you may want me to consider? Let me know.

Love,
Gauri

Starting a 100% free art community.

Don’t you worry.

I am not trying to trick you into paying me $1 per month to stay a part of the community later.

This will be a completely free community on a completely free app (still haven’t decided which platform I will be creating this on)

I have not started it yet, but I will be doing that soon.

Goal is to have a network of artists who can come together to preserve art in an era where AI is being abused.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not against AI. In fact, I love how fast and productive it makes me at work.

I am just against the abuse of AI in a way that takes away the very thing that makes us human- expression.

Let’s preserve art together.

If you want to be a part of this community, drop “Yes” below and I will reply to your comment once I am ready to invite people.

PS: For now, the community is only for artists who practice traditional crafts like writing, painting, and music, and not digital artists (photographers, graphic designers, etc.) or art-lovers. The idea is not to discriminate but to create a space where traditional crafts can be preserved. Kindly also mention your craft in the comments below.

Cheers,

Gauri

AI saddens me.

Not just because it may come after many jobs.

Not just because it may be taking away our autonomous ability to think.

But because, it might take away art from all humans.

There will soon come a time when most poems and books will be the children of prompts and not thoughts.

There will soon come a time when art aficionados will struggle to tell the handcrafted apart from the mass produced…

Wait! Does that sound familiar? Think back to the first Industrial revolution.

Jobs were lost then too. Later, newer jobs were birthed.

But depth is not like that. Once abandoned, depths are harder to return to.

Which is why, on my 10th blog anniversary, I want to take an initiative and bring artists together.

and I need your help doing it because I still don’t know how…

If you have any ideas about how we should be preserving art, comment below or email me.

Let’s unite and keep art live.

“The only way to preserve art is to practice it.” -Gauri Walecha

10-year Anniversary

It has been 10 years.

The day was June 14, 2015

I was 15 years old.

A teenager with a mind brimming with dreams, ideas, and curiosity.

So when my teacher told me about such a thing as blogging and a site like WordPress, I wasted no time and created a blog.

It took me 3 years of time, and a domain change before the blog finally began gaining traction.

And today, I can’t imagine my story without this blog and the people who’ve been a part of it.

Thank you so much for joining me on this thrilling journey.

I appreciate you all more than words can express.

Love,

Gauri

Apocalypse

There’s a world that’s ending
There’s a fire that’s red
There’s a night that’s growing
There’s a day, long dead.

There’s a moon that’s dull
There are clouds, they roar
The ground shakes beneath
The noise echos in my head.

Oh, make it stop.
Oh, make it stop.

I have a life to live
& stories to tell.

I have love to give
& tears to shed.

Oh, make it stop.
Let me see what tomorrow looks like.

Oh, make it stop.
Oh, make it stop.

-Gauri Walecha

Hands don’t know more magic.

Allow yourself to let go,
& your heart may still hide a world behind.

“Let go, live lighter,” they say.

But letting go is heavier than them all.

Tell me, oh, tell me-
what happens to my love when I let go.

Tell me, oh, tell me-
who holds on to memories when I let go.

Tell me, oh, tell me-
what if my house shatters when I let go.

Tell me, oh, tell me-
who do I run to,
when my hands lose grip
& my world fades away.

Tell me who do I blame.
Tell me who do I run to.
Tell me how do I live.

Tell me.

-Gauri Walecha

Hi, I am Gauri Walecha

I have never fully introduced myself on this blog. Why? I thought secrecy kept me safe from the judgement, trolling, vulnerability, & everything else in between.

Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t.

Well, maybe in the beginning it does, but eventually, and especially after you truly become vulnerable hiding behind the ruse of anonymity, you spend day and night fearing if someone you knew was reading and could tell that it was you.

It’s only after you grow up a little and experience a little life that you understand how all of us are very very naked. And that secrecy is a wall made of fear.

So, here I am, introducing myself once and for all, and bringing my digital footprint together.

I am Gauri Walecha, an entrepreneur, startup incubator, and writer. I laid the foundation of my career at just the age of 15, interestingly, with this blog. Today I hold a portfolio with the experience of working 100+ brands in various digital marketing capacities and incubating 20+ brands. The journey has been nothing less than magical. But then again, I may have not have lived it to the fullest because of- fear.

When I started this blog, I was a depressed teenager. A young person who had absolutely given up on life. This blog became the window that brought fresh air inside the cold dark room my mind had become. And eventually, it also became the key that opened the door to my career.

A part of me is still living in the same dark room. There are times I still have panic attacks, anxiety attacks, and sleepless nights. But thankfully, I have found that the way out isn’t too difficult to find.

It is funny how the blog that gave me the courage to make all these changes has become the very thing that I am afraid of pursuing today.

Every time I open this website to write my heart out, I end up chickening out thinking of the thousand ways in which I suck at writing now.

Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t.

All I know is that to this day, when a sleepless night visits me unannounced, the only thing that brings me comfort is the empty ‘post’ tab at WordPress.

So I keep trying to come back, restarting my journey again and again.

I don’t want to do this to have a personal brand.

I don’t want to do this in hopes of going viral.

I want to do this because I have friends here. Kind people who follow me. Who leave the sweetest comments under my post and make me believe in the world again.

I want to do this because here, it feels like home. I like my home.

I guess I will just hit ‘publish’ now.

Life Updates: Day 1 of Re-becoming a Writer

It has been a few months since I last posted on this blog.

But truth be told, it has been years since I last poured my heart & soul in a post here.

& no, it isn’t because I found a better platform for my art.

This happened because I lost the writer in me to a very sad incidence.

It was June 14, 2017.

That was my last honest post on this blog.

Shortly after that day, I faced sexual assault.

The worst part? I was not brave enough to raise my voice against what happened with me.

The suppression seemed harmless at first.

“It’s okay. You are not talking about this today but someday you will have the courage and means,” I would tell myself.

What I didn’t realise is that suppression will grab hold of such deep places in my heart, that I will fear holding the same pen that was once my best friend.

This post that I am writing today, contrary to what the title says, is not a life update.

I am not writing this post for anyone but me.

No editing. No proofreading. Just me, sitting with my phone at 1:50 AM, being honest.

This is me trying to reclaim my words.

This is me, re-becoming the writer I am.

When They Hold You

When you let them hold you
& their skin feels rough
don’t shudder on their scars
don’t run from the dirt

When you let them hold you
& their heart feels numb
don’t run to other grasses
don’t find fault in luck

When they hold you
& they tell you about their wars
don’t turn deaf
don’t touch them where they are hurt

When they open their heart
when they ask for yours
don’t hold it so close
you do away with love.

-Gauri Walecha

I Ask

To your art
I ask

Where does it find that fire
That bleeds amber on the canvas?

Where does it find the grief
That has painted my hands blue?

How does it conjure the vigour
That feels red, every time I touch it?

How has it remained so pure
That it makes whites look dirty?

To your art
I ask
& in my heart
I wonder

What does it take to paint something so beautiful
& yet throw it in the ruins?

What does it take so be a piece of art
That is admired by all, but the artist?

-Gauri Walecha