Meet the Art Muse: Blogging About Life, Art and Everything in Between
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about lifestyle bloggers? Food is usually my first guess in this association game, but I guess that really depends on your personal priorities – I can assume fashion comes to mind as well, travel, family, work (or work-life balance)… basically the list of topics end where your personality does, and extends appropriately with the span of your interests.
I like to think that you can roughly divide the lifestyle blogging topics in three categories: Who you are, What you go and What you love. I wanted to show how this works through a lifestyle blog I enjoyed thoroughly while browsing the .Me blogging multiverse – TheArtMuse.Me.
The author Rachel Matos is a social media professional and art historian. She launched theArtMuse in 2010, has since been awarded one of the Babble’s Best Bloggers of 2013 and LATISM’S best Latina Arts Blogger in 2012, and she recently chose the .Me domain to house her musings on life, art, and everything in between.
The Guggenheim, The Metropolitan, Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Bronx Museum of Arts are just a few of the arts institutions Rachel worked for, but over the last few years, shee took the opportunity of working from home as the Director of Social Media for Latina Bloggers Connect – the first digital agency dedicated to connecting brands exclusively with Latina bloggers and social media influencers.
Working from home? The best decision she’s ever made, she writes on her blog:
It’s the best career move and personal life decision I ever made. It can be a bit challenging because it requires an extraordinary amount of self-discipline (my cats purr their invitation to me to nap with them every day. The urge is so real, folks) but that catholic school discipline lives within me slapping my hand with a ruler to keep me focused. The biggest pro has been the flexibility (if needed) that allows for school events, doctor appointments and just simply being around when my son gets home from school.
She is originally from New York and currently resides in Los Angeles with her 14 year old son, her beau and two adorable cats. Rachel also writes for Babble’s Beauty and Style channels and is a contributing blogger for latinamom.me.
Now that we’ve gone through her quite impressive resume, let’s go through her no less impressive blog:
Who You Are
Every lifestyle blog is first and foremost personal. It’s your lifestyle after all, so it’s important to let your audience know who you are. This can be a pretty scary experience, opening up to a seemingly indefinite number of people with internet connection, but it can also be a cathartic experience. Writing about personal experience usually helps you look at them from different perspectives, which in turn makes you grow as a person.
My favorite pick in the “Who You Are” category on The Art Muse Blog is BEAUTY PORTRAIT: MY ABUELITA, a beautiful insight into family history that shows how strength and a sense for humor are passed down from one generation of women to the next one.
What You Do
As previously mentioned, Rachel is active in supporting the Latina Blogging Community at Latina Bloggers Connect, the organizer of the go-to professional conference for Latina digital content creators and influencers across all categories – We All Grow. Her post “Growing Through Life” reflects on the whole event, but it does so with a personal note about set backs – and how they can actually be a good thing.
What You Love
I may have been a bit subjective when it comes to this pick – I did sort of choose my favorite topic from the wide variety of those offered on the blog. but can you really blame me? Just look at those delicious chocolate chip brownies
Fair warning, once you start browsing through the Art Muse, you might fall into a rabbit hole and find your self scrolling further and further down to see what else she has in store.
