Hello everyone,
Considering what is done to art and creativity online these days, I've decided to rework most of my pages. I've been feeling somewhat better physically recently, but I couldn't even open my computer without spiralling into a full-blown panic attack amidst the quickly-developing AI apocalypse.
I'm eternally grateful to all of you who supported me on this platform. Your tips and membership payments were withdrawn, and last Summer I used them as a renumeration for my kid's project of gathering and organising information about my fictional Fleckney verse. I was planning to create a wiki page through Notion. The rest of the money was spent on art supplies, which I was planning to use to create physical pieces for a project that at the time I tentatively named Fleckney Fancies.
This past Winter has been rough. Notion has recently experienced yet another data leak - and to my shock, I saw the draft of the wiki was publicly accessible, despite the fact that I never published the page. The tiny video on IG of upcoming clay figurines I was working on, got scraped. Thousands of bots are crawling all over my site. The zines, the character sheets, and the 'notebook pages' that I was working on for this Buy Me a Coffee page in Canva, which were supposed to be posted in a shop here, have been compromised as well.
I've been struggling with so much anxiety: Will I see my Holyoakes scraped, mingled, and vomited on some fake IG page? Regurgitated into a disgusting misogynistic TikTok video with computer-rendered art stolen from another human? Turned into a nonsensical Kindle monstrosity? Will a fake store on Etsy offer and never deliver sage and lilac foxes and bears - or paper dolls with hearts on their cheeks - luring customers with the photos stolen from my reels?
But I don't think that I can survive without creating - writing and drawing - and I still want to share my art with all of you...
So, here's what's happening:
I've removed all my art from my Instagram, all the way back to 2015. It took many hours, and I had to rehydrate with plenty of tea three times after all the crying I've done.
Also, I've removed all photos of my child where his face is in any way distinguishable. If you don't know why, please look into what can happen to children's images these days. I don't have any strength to talk about it.
I'm closing this page, removing all the art I had prepared for the shop here.
I've already disabled my FB page.
I'm keeping my Instagram active, though. I'm hoping I'll start writing again soon, and I still want my readers to have a way to see updates on my life and writing, as well as send me a message when they want.
I'm keeping my site - kolmakov.ca - and I might actually start a blog there. I'll probably post a version of this message there as the first post.
I'm still planning to write on Wattpad. So far, I've removed all covers that Canva has applied its AI editing tools (once without my request or consent). Now, all the covers are hand-made by me with actual human-made elements that I paid for (as least to my knowledge).
I've looked into where I can post my art and share my behind-the-scenes posts, and it seems that these days the only safe platform is Procreate. I'm going to see if I can create an account there, and I'll repost my old art and all the new content I created (including the wiki). I'll try to make access to the private/locked posts as cheap as possible, so that you can still see them even if you don't contribute monetarily.
Here's where I stand. So, please follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kkolmakov/ and check out my site soon. I'll be working on it this week.
I hope to see you in my Wattpad stories and to connect on Patreon!
Love,
K. xx