RE: The Artful Provocateur

Well, hello again. I started darcycarter.com back in who knows when. It became a place to post my musings, my writing, and everything else that interested me. After about a year, it became a sporadic log of how busy I had become. There were often posts about not having anything to post about. Why did any of you read that? Maybe you didn't. I'm hoping you're a new reader who has come after the fact, and if so, consider yourself lucky. 

It wasn't all bad, though. Back then, darcycarter.com actually had a decent following. I posted regularly, but after a while things changed. My posts were no longer consistent and for many reasons. For one, my freelance writing career took off and I launched an art business shortly after. I had multiple things in play and truth be told, writing in general eats up a lot of time. I was often brainstorming new article pitches and channeling so much energy into my editorial work that when I sat down to blog here I had nothing left in the tank. So I neglected this space. My posts became erratic and one day I realized I hadn't posted in months so I axed the whole thing. 

I wanna say that was 10 years ago. Fast forward to the present and I've realized just how important this space is to me. Maybe it's the effect of mercury retrograde, but I've spent the last week reading some of my old posts here, all of which have since been deleted. I'm starting fresh and launching a new blog with broader wings. What began as a public log of a 25-year-old's journey into writing will now be a collection of written content featuring whatever the hell I feel like posting. 

However, there is a caveat -- I'm not the same woman I used to be. I'm bolder, older, and much more at peace with who I am. With the old blog, I heavily edited myself and stayed away from certain topics that I really wanted to write about. Subjects such as sex, explicit literature, and all the things my provocative dark passenger loves to sink its fangs into. 

My modus operandi as an artist is to explore the depths of intimacy, sexuality, eroticism, and liberty through creative expression. The old me shied away from sharing work that could be considered explicit or controversial out of fear of external opinion. The new me is fully tapped into, aware, and proud of my authentic self. I don't care about exposing myself as a sexual woman who is a bit edgier than most. I kinda get off on it. You see, I no longer hide my dark passenger. I see the value in her. She's my honest component and by honoring her I am completely free. 

I call her, The Artful Provocateur. The name is a tantalizing mix of words, congruent with me, and when the time came to rename the blog it seamlessly encapsulates the vision I have for this new venture. This is my unfiltered corner of the internet that allows me to truly write from the heart. Here, I don't have to produce work strictly for editorial approval, and that feels nice. 

If you are (still) reading this, what I'm trying to say is I'm back, but different. My schedule is still haywire, but I've mastered the art of keeping a life while writing a lot, drinking my water, and figuring out where a good amount of sleep should fit. It's dramatic as fuck, but I need this blog like I need air. Professionally, I write all the time, but expressing myself freely in this space is something I didn't realize I was missing until I sat down to write this.

It's been my experience that writing has a way of revealing the truth to you in the writing itself. My motivation for launching this new blog was unclear to me before I wrote this piece. I get it now -- it's the creativity and the freedom that comes with writing content that truly means something to you. I love it so freakin' much. And I can't seem to stop so...I'll be here. Won't you join me? Xx