Leith Semmens Artist Reimagining My Online Identity Through Visual Storytelling
Changing an online identity is about much more than changing a name at the top of a page. A name carries memories, recognition, familiar habits, and a trail of work that people may already know. It also invites a very human question: what comes next?
I am slowly changing my online identity to Leith Semmens Artist. This change is about more than making my name easier to find. It is about placing my artistic expression at the centre of my online presence, and giving my visual storytelling room to grow.
For years, my old online identity, Tripod Dog Gallery, has held a particular meaning. It has been part of my creative life and part of how people found my work. I do not see it as something to erase or leave behind. It still belongs to my story. Yet it no longer holds the whole picture of what I am making, seeing, and sharing now.
My eyesight has been restored, and that has changed how I experience the world. It has also changed how I understand my art. With renewed sight comes renewed attention. Colour, light, detail, memory, place, and lived experience have become sharper in ways that are both practical and deeply personal.
This change will take time. It is gradual, a little complex, and I am doing much of it myself. That is why I genuinely welcome your feedback. If you have followed my work through Tripod Dog Gallery, or if you are meeting it now through my name, your response can help shape a clearer, more honest online presence.
Why I am moving towards Leith Semmens Artist
The move to Leith Semmens Artist gives the work a clearer centre. It places my name alongside the art, rather than behind a gallery identity that may now feel separate from the person making the work.
A name can create a more direct connection. When people see the work, they can connect it to a lived life, a person, a way of looking, and a set of experiences. That matters because my art is not only about finished images. It is about the personal and visual journey behind them.
Tripod Dog Gallery was meaningful, and it still has emotional value. It held a certain spirit, perhaps even a protective space. But an online identity needs to grow when the work grows. It needs to reflect the present, not only the past.
This shift is not a sudden rejection of the old name. It is more like turning towards the light and asking, “What does the work need now?”
For me, the answer is becoming clearer:
A stronger connection between my name and my art
A greater focus on artistic expression
A clearer way to share lived experience through visual storytelling
A simpler path for people to recognise, remember, and return to the work
A more personal presence that reflects where I am now
The phrase Leith Semmens Artist Reimagining My Online Identity Through Visual Storytelling describes the heart of this change. It is a reimagining, not a quick edit. It asks how an artist’s name, story, and work can sit together with more honesty.
What Tripod Dog Gallery has meant
An old identity can become familiar in comforting ways. It can hold past projects, early experiments, older audiences, and the feeling of having built something from scratch. Tripod Dog Gallery has done that.
It has been a container. It has given my work a place while my practice changed, shifted, and survived different stages of life. It has also carried a memorable image. The name has character. It suggests resilience, humour, difference, and affection. Those qualities are not being thrown away.
Still, there comes a point where a name may begin to describe only part of the story. Tripod Dog Gallery does not need to be “updated” in the old sense, as though it must keep working in the same role forever. It can remain part of the path while my current focus becomes clearer elsewhere.
That distinction matters. I am not trying to tidy the past into something neat. I am trying to let the present speak in its own voice.
The old identity may still appear in archives, references, older links, or memories. People may still associate it with me for some time. That is natural. A careful identity change respects that slow recognition. It does not demand that everyone forget what came before.
Instead, it gives people a bridge.
Restored eyesight has changed the way I see the work
Having my eyesight restored is not a minor detail in this story. It affects the work's whole direction.
Sight is physical, but it is also emotional. When vision changes, the relationship with colour, contrast, shape, space, and depth changes too. Things that may once have felt distant or difficult can return with force. Ordinary details can become charged with meaning.
That renewed seeing brings both joy and responsibility. It makes me want to look more carefully. It makes me want the work to carry more of what has been lived, felt, lost, regained, and noticed.
Visual art storytelling gives that experience a form. It allows a picture to do what words sometimes cannot. A painting, drawing, or mixed media piece can hold memory without reducing it to explanation. It can show fragments, moods, symbols, and contradictions.
Some lived experiences aren't best told in straight lines. They come through as colour choices, repeated marks, strange compositions, altered perspectives, or recurring subjects. They may appear as:
A bright edge after a period of uncertainty
A distorted shape that reflects confusion or pain
An animal figure carrying tenderness and survival
A domestic object that holds memory
A landscape seen again with different eyes
A face, hand, or shadow that suggests presence without giving everything away
Restored eyesight has given me a renewed relationship with these visual choices. It has asked me to look again, not only at the outside world, but at the stories I have been carrying.
Why visual storytelling feels like the right focus
Art can document lived experience without becoming literal. That is one of its strengths.
A story in visual art might begin with a real event, but it does not have to explain every detail. It can protect privacy while still telling the truth. It can invite feeling without demanding a single interpretation. It can leave space for the viewer to meet the work from their own life.
For me, this is where the change to Leith Semmens Artist becomes most meaningful. The name is direct, but the work can remain layered. The online identity can be clearer, while the art itself keeps its depth.
I want the focus to sit on art as a way of thinking, remembering, and expressing. That means sharing more than finished pieces. It may also mean sharing process, small details, works in progress, studio notes, fragments of lived experience, and reflections on what I am learning through making.
A stronger online identity does not have to become polished in a cold way. It can be clear and still human. It can be organised and still tender. It can make space for uncertainty, change, and growth.
That balance matters to me.
The change is slow because it needs care
Changing an online presence by yourself can be surprisingly complex. You have names, profiles, old links, images, descriptions, archives, habits, and search results to consider. People who know you under one name may also need time to recognise the new one.
A slow change is not a failure. It may be the right pace.
If I move too quickly, I risk losing the continuity between Tripod Dog Gallery and Leith Semmens Artist. If I move too slowly, the new direction may remain unclear. The task is to create a path that feels steady and recognisable.
Some parts of the change are practical:
Updating profile names where possible
Rewriting short biographies
Choosing which older references to keep
Creating clear links between the old identity and the new one
Making sure images and written descriptions match the current direction
Reviewing how the work is presented across different places online
Other parts are more personal:
Deciding what the new identity should feel like
Understanding what belongs in the past
Letting the work speak more openly through my name
Finding language that feels true, not forced
Accepting that people may take time to adjust
That personal work cannot be rushed. It needs attention, and sometimes it needs outside eyes.
What feedback would help most?
Because I am making this change myself, feedback is genuinely useful. Not all feedback needs to be technical. Often, the most helpful comments are simple and direct.
I am interested in what people notice. Does the new name feel clear? Does the connection between my name and my art make sense? Is it clear that Tripod Dog Gallery is part of the history, while Leith Semmens Artist is the current focus?
Helpful feedback might include thoughts on:
Clarity
Can you understand the shift without needing a long explanation? Does the language make sense?
Recognition
If you knew Tripod Dog Gallery, can you see how it connects to Leith Semmens Artist?
Feeling
Does the new identity feel more personal, more focused, or more connected to the work?
Story
Does the idea of lived experience through visual art storytelling come through clearly?
Ease
Is it simple to know where to look, what to follow, and how to recognise the work?
Feedback does not need to be perfect or formal. A short response can be enough. Sometimes a viewer sees confusion that the artist cannot see from inside the process.
That is one of the challenges of working alone. You can become so close to the work, and so close to the transition, that obvious gaps become invisible.
Keeping continuity while making room for change
A name change works best when it keeps a thread intact. I do not want the shift to feel like a door closing. I want it to feel like a clearer doorway into the same long practice, now seen with renewed vision.
There are a few ways to hold that continuity.
One is to speak openly about the change. Rather than quietly replacing one name with another, I can explain that Tripod Dog Gallery was the earlier identity, and Leith Semmens Artist is the name I'm moving toward now.
Another is to carry forward the values that mattered in the old identity. If Tripod Dog Gallery held resilience, tenderness, character, or a sense of survival, those qualities can still live in the work. They don't need the old name to stay alive.
A third is to let the art itself create recognition. Over time, recurring colours, subjects, marks, and themes may become stronger than any label. The name helps people find the work, but the work is what keeps them there.
This is especially true for visual storytelling. People may first arrive because of a name, but they stay because something in the image speaks to them.
What I hope the new identity will allow
I hope Leith Semmens Artist will create a more direct and honest space for the work.
I want it to support a practice shaped by restored sight, lived experience, and careful visual expression. I want it to make the art easier to recognise and easier to connect with. I want it to give me room to share not only finished works, but also the thinking and feeling behind them.
Most of all, I hope it allows the work to be seen in its own right.
The online identity should not become louder than the art. It should guide people towards it. It should say, simply and clearly, this is the artist, this is the work, and this is the story now unfolding.
That may sound simple, but simple things often take time to build well.
A change made with patience and openness
This shift to Leith Semmens Artist is a personal, creative, and practical step. It is also an invitation.
Tripod Dog Gallery remains part of where the work has been. Leith Semmens Artist is where I am placing my attention now. The change reflects restored eyesight, a stronger name identity, and a deeper focus on telling lived experiences through visual art storytelling.
I expect the process to take time. Some parts will be clear straight away. Others will need small adjustments, better wording, or fresh eyes. That is part of the work.
If you have thoughts, impressions, questions, or suggestions, I welcome them. Your feedback can help make this transition clearer, warmer, and more useful for anyone who wants to follow the art as it changes.
The name is changing, but the heart of the work remains honest looking, careful making, and the search for stories that can be carried through images.
Comments