All Free All the Time

No more paywall

pdp1005ct18 - acrylic over paper on canvas - 36 x 36 inches

Hi Gang,

Typically on a lot of substack pages writers are trying to make a living from their publication. That is the basic concept of substack. And that is a cool idea. I love that. So they have built in a mechanism for writers to hide their content either from the beginning or after a certain length of time from everyone that doesn’t become a paid subscriber. That is a good thing but, you know, how many publications can a person afford to subscribe to? I only have paid subscriptions to 3 or 4 publications myself that I really love and want to support.

In my own case I don’t need to make a living from substack subscriptions like most writers are trying to do (although that would be fantastic) because my attention is making a living from my art making. I started this publication as basically a communal service to other artists to provide articles about how to think about and keep going with your studio practice based on things I have spent years figuring out and to hopefully provide some encouragement to stay at it. Staying engaged as an artist in the middle of everything else is not an easy thing to do as we all know.

So coming to the main point of this post… The idea of exclusivity kind of runs against my grain. Hence, I have decided to remove the paywall from all posts and make the whole newsletter available for all subscribers. This is not to say that your support is not important. Please do become a paid VIP subscriber to help me imagine that I am a professional writer. (Not that I was planning to stop if you don’t)

It is a hassle from my point of view to refer to older posts in a new article and not be sure you, the subscriber, can click over and see it to follow my chain of thought. There are a lot of pretty darn good early articles. In the next couple of weeks I will hit the 300 marker in terms of published posts. There is a lot to read at this point. So…

All posts on the Touchonian are all free all the time.

I have been messing around online since the mid 90’s. But in recent years I have gotten tired of trying to keep up with everything I built. I had to simplify my online presence and focus on operating from one platform. The Touchonian is my main communication device at this point. Basically anything going on in my world worth mentioning will show up in this newsletter.

You can also buy me a coffee now and then! I post more spontaneous stuff to the Touchonian Coffee Club for supporters now and then on BuyMeACoffee.com. If you buy a coffee there you’ll be a coffee club member and get those posts as I make them. I have a few ‘go to’ posts like The Morning Walk, On the Collage Table, In the Studio, Poetics, etc. - basically more like off the cuff personal notes and thoughts about whatever.