Somewhere along the way, “independent artist” stopped meaning free.
Now it often means burned out, underpaid, over-algorithmed, and expected to stay grateful for the scraps.
We’ve been told that “community” will save us — as long as we perform enough, post enough, and smile enough. That success is a popularity contest, and silence is a flaw.
But I built Ottawa Valley Creations alone. Not because I wanted isolation, but because most doors stayed closed. So I made my own.
🖋️ The State of Indie Culture
Indie culture is supposed to be the alternative — the antidote to gatekeeping and corporate sameness. But too often, it just rebuilds the same structures under a different name.
If you’re not loud enough online, you disappear. If you’re too different, you’re ignored. If you ask questions instead of conforming, you’re treated like a threat.
I didn’t get here by being chosen. I got here by being curious.
When people underestimated me, I studied harder. When systems broke, I researched how to fix them. When the internet said, “you can’t do that without this tool,” I went and learned the tool — or built my own version.
Knowledge became my rebellion.
⚔️ Transparency Over Perfection
Perfectionism is the leash they put on people who might otherwise innovate.
We’re told to hide the messy parts — the learning, the process, the workarounds — because visibility is supposedly reserved for the finished product. But I’d rather be transparent than polished.
I share the research, the troubleshooting, the hours of reading and testing, because the process is the proof. It’s how independence earns trust.
You don’t need to be perfect to be professional. You just need to be informed and intentional.
🌌 Independence ≠ Isolation
Yes, I built this alone — every page, every product, every system — but that solitude wasn’t empty. It was filled with reading, experimentation, and a deep understanding of how things actually work.
I didn’t learn this from a mentor or a Discord server. I learned it from manuals, articles, developer docs, business guides, and the occasional academic paper I had no business understanding but read anyway.
Independence isn’t the absence of support — it’s the presence of competence. It’s knowing that, given enough time and access to information, you can figure out almost anything.
That’s not isolation. That’s self-reliance in its most educated form.
🏫 Education as Rebellion
There’s power in knowing how your own tools work. That’s the secret no one in the “creator economy” wants to admit — because a well-informed artist is a hard person to exploit.
Every time I teach what I’ve learned — whether it’s how to self-host, reroute fulfillment, or price work fairly — I’m refusing to let that knowledge stay locked behind paywalls or gatekeepers.
Information should circulate. That’s how independence grows roots.
The Movement™ isn’t about rebellion for rebellion’s sake. It’s about literacy. It’s about creators becoming fluent in the systems that shape their livelihoods so those systems can’t hold them hostage.
❤️🔥 What The Movement™ Feels Like
It’s not loud. It’s steady.
It feels like sitting at your desk at 2 a.m., researching a fix for a plugin conflict — and realizing you understand it. It feels like watching your store run smoothly because you built the logic that makes it work.
It’s the satisfaction of not having to beg for help to maintain what’s yours.
It’s the quiet pride of being both the artist and the engineer.
That’s independence: creative, technical, intellectual.
Empowered. Informed. Unapologetic.
💌 The Invitation
If you’ve ever been told you’re “not tech-savvy,” “too quiet,” or “too small to matter,” know this: you can learn anything.
Start where you are. Read everything you can get your hands on. Don’t let anyone convince you that curiosity is arrogance or that independence is lonely.
Build your systems. Understand your tools. Ask questions until the world makes sense again.
That’s what The Movement™ really is — not a rebellion against community, but a reclamation of knowledge. A reminder that information is power, and power belongs in the hands of the people who actually make things.
Here’s to the autodidacts, the night researchers, the quiet builders who study their way to freedom.
We’re not waiting to be taught anymore. We’re teaching ourselves.
🌿 If reflections like this speak to you, you can support independent creativity through the Mutual Aid Fund or by exploring the Shop: Made by Me | Oddities & Convenience. If you’d like: you can follow us on itch.io or on ko-fi as well.