Buoyed by ACEOs in The dotted line

I'm bidding on my first ever ACEOs.

I'd never heard of such things until I started following painting tutorials on TikTok, now I see artist's showing them all the time!

I recently created a second TikTok account, that is just used for creative endevours. It's a calm, safe, soft place that I can go to unwind. I still have my original account too, which mostly contains political content. One space to challenge my thoughts and another to calm them. I am so pleased I created it, it's not only made my downtime feel calmer, but it's made me more inspired to create too.

And the accounts I follow has led TikTok to show me many ACEOs. From my very limited understanding, I'm guessing their purpose is to create low investment pieces (for both the artist and buyer), that an artist can make quickly and frequently (so they've always got fresh content to show) and that become part of a tiny art collection, that keeps buyers coming back.

The algorithm decided I'd like to see a watercolour of a marvellously cute mouse. "Aww, he's lovely." I thought. Enough so, that I toddled off to ebay to nosey at the listing. 

Whilst there I got lost in the many, many, many ACEOs being listed and was stopped in my tracks by a little painting of the sea at sunset. There was just something about it that made me feel buoyed. I think it reminded me of travels in Thailand.

I checked the artist's other auctions... they're only selling ACEOs. 44 in total and almost none had bids on yet. I found another, and another, and another that I really liked and.. this is happening! I excitedly logged in to bid.

But wait..

What if the artist is.. horrible? What if they're non-inclusive or greedy or have a massive ego.. I wouldn't want to own that art if I found out they were horrible.

Off to Google ... I found her on TikTok and Instagram - "checkout my art", okay.. "painting nature" good, good.. "FREE PALESTINE". Yay! You are my people =)

I happily bid on 4 of her ACEOs, each with the shockingly low price of just over £1 with free delivery. I feel guilty. She'll earn almost nothing for her amazing work. At least the combined postage will mean she'll get to keep a few £s.

I've followed her on TikTok and will tag her into an Instagram post too, once I've got the pictures displayed (if I win them), so I can at least pay her via the algorithm.

And I'll probably end up buying more. I can see how this ACEO market is.. addictive!