Follow them anywhere:
Mighty.Beautiful’s list of our FAVORITE artists to “Like” and Follow on social media For 2023
By Maria Sprow / Mighty.Beautiful Art Studio
There are a lot of downsides to social media. I basically hate almost everything about it. It intensifies toxic fomo, the fear of missing out on what others are doing instead of focusing on what YOU want to do, makes it FEEL like nobody cares about the things I care about, and sharing my art on social media is honestly a huge stressor and depressant for me since my work has thus far failed to fit into any kind of algorithm or definition of viral success. Spending weeks or hours on something to share to get less than a handful of “likes” while somebody’s selfie racks up hundreds of them in an hour is emotionally devastating on a regular basis and a kind of pseudo-rejection that artists and creative people have to overcome.
But I do LOVE one thing about it: How easy it is to follow all my favorite artists in one place! These are the accounts that most brighten my days and inspire me to keep going in the hopes that “someday” I’ll be as awesome at something as they are.
In no particular order…
PHOTOGRAPHERS
@Hobopeeba
London’s Kristina Makeeva isn’t your average professional photographer. Her beautifully surreal photographs are more art than reality, but her creativity and technical skills stands out in each and every surprising and delightful post.
TEXTILE ARTISTS
@victoriaroserichards
Victoria Rose Richards is a 24-year-old from South West Devon, UK, whose stunningly beautiful embroidered landscapes are as awe-inducing as the real thing. A scientist studying the effect of organic and mineral fertilizers on soil microbial diversity by day, her textile work is truly the stuff dreams are made of.
@lisagoddart
As a mixed media artist, Lisa Goddard combines textiles, mediums and words to help followers learn to express themselves freely with whatever materials they have on-hand. Her thrifted art journal pages are impressive and inspirational.
@Amygenserstudio
Just looking at Amy Gensler’s nature-inspired sculptural paper artworks helps move me into a more creative flow, as many of her works are inspired by the movement of water, as well as other natural phenomena. According to her website, Amy uses “paper as a pigment and constructs her pieces by layering, cutting, rolling, and combining paper. The process is a meditation, which Amy describes as a beautiful dream.”
PAINTERS AND ILLUSTRATORS
@sonaln
I love Sonal Nathwani’s expressive and ethereal floral paintings. This Austrian artists knows how to paint emotions, feelings and movements in her nature-inspired work. “I love the simplicity used by Japanese artists; the colours used in Indian art; the mastery of Chinese brushstrokes; the way skilled craftsmen passionately make simple yet beautiful creations; the way the sky changes while the sun rises; and the smallest magical details of everyday life moments,” she states on her website.
Spanish painter Noemi Ibarz’s whimsically patterned doodles are always fun, colorful and guaranteed to make your day brighter whenever they come across your newsfeed.
Elyse Fournier
If you’re wanting to fall down a Wonderland-like rabbit hole, Elyse Fournier (Facebook) will take you there with her vibrant and beautifully imaginative acrylic paintings of alien landscapes.
Andy Kehoe
My new hometown of Pittsburgh is also home to Andy Kehoe (Facebook), one of my favorite digital illustrators. His work always perfectly captures a surreal moment in time, just not in our time.
Iris Scott’s (Facebook) paintings are out of this world. Scott uses her fingers and compressed air to take her inspiring and mesmerizing impressionistic paintings to a whole new level. According to her website, “The bustling energy of New York led Iris, in 2019, to seek isolation and solitude in Northern New Mexico. In 2020 the artist and her husband, a writer, purchased 500 acres overlooking Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O’Keeffe had once famously painted. Together the creative pair built a house and studio adjacent to national wilderness. Their adobe home sits perched on the edge of a canyon, within walking distance from caves, dinosaur bones, native ruins, and petroglyphs.” If any artist is both living the dream and living in a dream, it’s Iris.
CLAY & SCULPTURE
Creative Mom (CreativeMother on Facebook) has a SLEW of some of the best creative process tutorials on the Internet, and they are ALL ABOUT UPCYCLING TRASH! Or at least, used jars and bottles and other materials that would normally contribute to waste. I don’t know her name, which is fitting because she is my hero and superheroes always go my a moniker. (EDIT: Her name is Diana, like Beyonce’s name is Beyonce.)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PROMPTERS
@3lot3ro
This prompt artist may just deal in AI-generated art, but Mac DeMarco’s anime-style experiments in machine learning give good insight into what artificially intelligent generated art can do, and in a creative field that’s growing and changing every day, it’s nice to stay in the loop. And as controversial as AI art is, it is a tool for creative people to use for expression and it does require skill.
@mrk.ism
Markos Kay (Facebook) is a “computational artist” and I don’t know exactly what that means but whatever it is, this guy’s posts depicting sentient alien plants and have an excellent shot at blowing your mind and regularly blow mine.