I'll probably feel insecure about this thread in a few hours and remove it. But I try to be a good person, I don't think I'm awful and not worth being friends with it's just things haven't worked in my favour for a while in this area of my life despite trying very hard.
I have a friend in a really similar situation. Super lovely, big online community, but just irl it's like "???". It really sucks!! I think it's also like... Sometimes none of your people are physically around you to find, and that's so dumb and difficult.
Maybe it's cause I'm older, maybe It's because the pandemic has busted everyone's social skills, but it seems the only friends I've made are all non-artists. It sucks, I miss collaboration, I miss the excitement if seeing & sharing work that gets immediate feedback. So, you're not alone, trust me.
I am probably in a better social space than I was, moving around a lot often meant starting over again & again. But I still don't really have any artist friends and no idea how to make them online or off. I had hoped college would help, but something has changed.
I hope you don't, this is a legit thing a lot of us struggle w/. It is super hard to make friends as an adult, harder still to find artist friends whom one can just vibe, talk shop or go nuts about what ever we're working on.