Is CARA the new social media for artists? Instagram versus Cara

After seeing Cara, I'm happy. No trashy ads and no recommendations from stupid influencers, what a novelty!

I've been stuck on about 200 followers on Instagram for a long time so I decided to give Cara a try. Seems good so far, but my issue is that it's kind of hard to find traditional artists to follow because most users seem to be digital artists. And I do like digital work as well, but as a traditional painter myself, I'd like to follow other similar artists.

It's less of an Instagram killer and more of a artist solidarity and sacred grounds for expression. I do think this is why artists will leave Instagram in it's one's full capacity.

The creators of CARA are also artists that have been around for a long time. They were the early known artists in Deviant Art. One of the people behind it recently won a case against a plagiarist that used her editorial photography without her permission. It consumed a lot of her time, so after she won the case, she finally had more time to focus on CARA. In my point of view, CARA is more like Deviantart/Instagram. It's a combination of portfolio and posting random works. I don't know what direction they will be going in the future but I hope it will remain favourable for creative people.

I like Cara because it reminds me of the old days of DA back when we would just share art for the sake of sharing art. We didn't care about building an audience or making money from it. I like how low pressure it feels. I almost never post anything on Instagram because I feel like it needs to be finished to make my page look professional, but with Cara I feel more comfortable sharing WIPS's and posing sketches ect. and I like that it had a post function since I've never used twitter. Maybe that's just me. I've been itching to have an artist lead community again where we are there to celebrate each others art not compete for views and clients. Inevitably I'm sure Cara will turn into that too, I suppose, but right now its a nice breath of fresh air!

I’ve had a concern for awhile now that it seems like creative communities are in their own bubbles. Photographers are creating work that will make good content for other photographers rather than their subjects. There’s a pressure for designers to keep up with and replicate trends because other designers will like it. Art seems to comment less on the world around us. I do worry about how this platform will contribute to that. I also wonder how SOCIAL this really is. It feels more like Behance than a social network to me

Me and my friend was discussing this, and the point you made at the end, we was saying the same thing. The most important things are galleries, pop-up events, conventions, and meeting people, buyers in person.

Honestly, this is those kinds of things that surely would benefit running a Kickstarter campaign to be ready to launch with "great ideas, but better decisions".

Maybe the collectors and galleries will start using Cara.

I'm not sure where this is going but I really like what I see in my feed on Cara for now

I think you have very valid concerns. I’m a digital artist and I’ve been wanting to start posting my art on social media and try to build some kind of following, even if it’s not very big. I was kind of stuck on what to do, which app to use because none of them seemed to respect artists or try to protect them. I’m glad a solution has presented itself. I definitely want to support Cara just to see where it goes. For now, my home is tumblr, I’m just focusing on improving my art. It’s hard to know which social media will stay in the long term, but I hope we get at least one good art platform for artists that manages to stick around and actually stand by artists.

I think having an artist focused place is great, and I hope Cara embraces that. Because then it could become the go-to place when you need to find the said artists for commissions or fine art purchases. But I agree with you - I wouldn't put all of my eggs in one basket either. Diversification is the way, anyway, if you have the energy and time to grow a few platforms at once.

If majority artists abandon IG and migrate, people will have no choice, but move with them. There are service artists - tattooing, graphic design, concept, freelance etc.

I’m on Cara! Can’t leave Instagram because my living depends on it but I definitely made a rant reel about meta ai 😂

I like Cara but the amount of people that come to the platform, post an image and get upset they arent getting a bunch of likes is crazy. Cara isnt about numbers but community. If you want to be seen you need to interact with other artist through following, commenting and rebloging. Alot seem to not understand the seperation of timeline for rebloging and the portfolio for post work 😵‍💫

I wonder if they have considered some kind of shop function and take a modest fee like 4% from sales through the app? Or maybe a small fee to list paintings for sale on a separate page? Hm.

Jumped on Cara a couple of days ago. ..feels like I’m right at the bottom of a long hill again. I’ll climb it but a little jaded from the climbing the IG one. I’ll do both for now and see how it goes but I have a feeling Cara will fade away if they have to rely on goodwill of their users (Meta/big tech hate won’t be enough).

Excellent post! Great analysis, very in depth. Love how you conclude by emphasizing in person events & an email list.

In case you haven't heard about Nightshade AI filter, you can put it over your art before posting and it is not visible to the naked eye, but makes it impossible for the art to be used to train AI

Aside from AI, I personally hope Cara is an artists app like I’m rlly overwhelmed by tiktok and Instagram bc of the toxicity around the art community lately😭 I would def make a art posts there just for art and it’s a great timing since I’ve been looking for an app maybe for artists like Pinterest