I had the most fun in InWorldz last night (July 24, 2018) that I've had in a long time. And there were more people on the grid than I've seen in quite awhile. All of this is painfully ironic because InWorldz appears to be poised to go away on Friday. There is a lot of talk of a new grid and using OARs to transfer over inventory, but there are so many problems with that idea that no one is talking about. Even if our inventories transfer over seamlessly to this new grid (which is not a guarantee AT ALL), many of the vendors, venue owners, residential estate agents and regular residents may not take the leap.
I plan to box up some stuff and see if it transfers to the new grid, but what I wanted to save was my beautiful house in its idyllic location on Raya 6 and my not-as-yet-matured OYO cat and the view I have from my rooftop, and I know that won't be waiting for me at the new grid.
In reality, it's our relationships that make the World, the people we come to know in it. And I hope we won't be scattered. Please leave your contact information in the Comments below so we can find each other. Here's mine:
Winterlight Bellic in Second Life, Discovery Grid, and DigiWorldz. Also Asimia Heron in Second Life; you can email me at asimia.heron@gmail.com.
Love you guys. Thanks for the fun. Let's not lose touch.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Monday, July 09, 2018
Does Being an Artist Make it Harder to Art?
I threw up a quickie poll on my Instagram Stories last week, asking how many people make art every day. I expected most people to respond with "no." God knows some days I feel like I'm slaying at life if I just manage to put on pants.
But after 24 hours and an admittedly small sample of responses, it was almost half and half. And among the people who said they DO make art everyday, I noticed a little more than half of them don't seem to self-identify as artists, which raised a question.
Does being "an artist" sometimes make it harder to "art"? Is there something in choosing to wear that mantle that puts barriers in our way?
I think for some of us the answer is yes.
I recalled a conversation I had with a friend just before I started work on my MFA. He, too, was the holder of an MFA, from a much fancier school than the one I was enrolling in, and he had a nice long exhibition record and even some interest from galleries. I told him I was starting my degree and how much I was looking forward to it, to the inspiration, the camaraderie, and to kind of feeling like I was earning that title of "artist." I asked him for any tips he might have to offer. He looked at the ground for a few seconds, and finally said "Graduate school made me afraid to do anything. Try not to let it do that to you."
Sure enough, graduate school put a little bit of a kink in my flow. I felt myself get more thoughtful, which on one level was good. But "thoughtful" kind of degenerated into "paralysis by analysis," and I sometimes found myself NOT creating because it didn't feel thought-out enough or serious enough or important enough. And I have had conversations with non-grad-school artists who, after becoming serious about putting themselves out there, found themselves reining in because now they were thinking about things they had never considered before, like target markets and portability for fairs and whether something was sellable.
You don't have to do this to yourself. Selling art isn't what makes you an artist. Making "serious" work isn't what makes you an artist. Getting in a gallery isn't what makes you an artist. You're an artist if you spend a lot of time 1) making art or 2) worrying about not making art.
I don't make art every day, although I try to be as consistent as possible and have created a fairly reliable routine for myself (more on that much later). I know a lot of us rely on teaching and other activities to supplement our incomes, and that takes away from our art-making time. Plus: families, friends, household chores, pets, West World rebroadcasts, and American Ninja Warrior. You get what I mean. The trick is to understand what you need to do in ordernot to feel like shit uh I mean to feel fulfilled as an artist, and really, that definition is entirely up to you.
So you might want to make art every day or might not feel like that's necessary. We're going to experiment with an art-every-day challenge on Instagram in a couple of weeks, so please follow me if you'd like to come and play. And we'll also talk about tips for creating habits and systems that support you, so you can create art in a way that feels authentic and natural to you, whether that's every day or every other day or every week or every now and then.
But after 24 hours and an admittedly small sample of responses, it was almost half and half. And among the people who said they DO make art everyday, I noticed a little more than half of them don't seem to self-identify as artists, which raised a question.Does being "an artist" sometimes make it harder to "art"? Is there something in choosing to wear that mantle that puts barriers in our way?
I think for some of us the answer is yes.
I recalled a conversation I had with a friend just before I started work on my MFA. He, too, was the holder of an MFA, from a much fancier school than the one I was enrolling in, and he had a nice long exhibition record and even some interest from galleries. I told him I was starting my degree and how much I was looking forward to it, to the inspiration, the camaraderie, and to kind of feeling like I was earning that title of "artist." I asked him for any tips he might have to offer. He looked at the ground for a few seconds, and finally said "Graduate school made me afraid to do anything. Try not to let it do that to you."
Sure enough, graduate school put a little bit of a kink in my flow. I felt myself get more thoughtful, which on one level was good. But "thoughtful" kind of degenerated into "paralysis by analysis," and I sometimes found myself NOT creating because it didn't feel thought-out enough or serious enough or important enough. And I have had conversations with non-grad-school artists who, after becoming serious about putting themselves out there, found themselves reining in because now they were thinking about things they had never considered before, like target markets and portability for fairs and whether something was sellable.
You don't have to do this to yourself. Selling art isn't what makes you an artist. Making "serious" work isn't what makes you an artist. Getting in a gallery isn't what makes you an artist. You're an artist if you spend a lot of time 1) making art or 2) worrying about not making art.
I don't make art every day, although I try to be as consistent as possible and have created a fairly reliable routine for myself (more on that much later). I know a lot of us rely on teaching and other activities to supplement our incomes, and that takes away from our art-making time. Plus: families, friends, household chores, pets, West World rebroadcasts, and American Ninja Warrior. You get what I mean. The trick is to understand what you need to do in order
So you might want to make art every day or might not feel like that's necessary. We're going to experiment with an art-every-day challenge on Instagram in a couple of weeks, so please follow me if you'd like to come and play. And we'll also talk about tips for creating habits and systems that support you, so you can create art in a way that feels authentic and natural to you, whether that's every day or every other day or every week or every now and then.
Friday, April 01, 2016
Tips for Living with Artsy Hair
So. If you, like me, have long dreamed about having artistic hair, I want to encourage you wholeheartedly to go for it. If you're an artist or art faculty or graphic designer or web designer, there are people out there already who are disappointed that your hair is not green or purple or blue. I took the leap just a few weeks ago, and I could not be happier. Turns out, there were only two kinds of people in my life: people who loved my purple hair, and people who thought I already had purple hair. And I'm now the Faculty Member Most Likely to be trotted out to meet prospective students; purple hair gives you some street cred with high school students that I had not, apparently, fully appreciated.
That being said, however, living with hair this color has some unique aspects to it. Here are some tips to help you live with artsy hair.
1. Expect additions to your morning routine. You get up, pour coffee, say affirmations, brush teeth, etc. etc. You will now need to add "clean ears" to that list, because overnight they will have transformed to be the same color as your hair. And this happens Every. Single. Day.
2. Invest in night cream for your face and neck. Use it every night. Not because of wrinkles, but because it makes it a lot easier to wipe the dye off your face and neck the next morning.
3. Purchase some new bed linens and towels. Shoot for something that is your new hair color. Or dark brown. Or black. Black is good.
4. Put away the fancy nightie. Sleep in a tye-dyed tee shirt. It makes more sense. You'll find out why.
5. Remember shower caps? Yeah. Get some.
6. Learn a new shower pattern. My shower routine generally involved me having my head under the shower head for most of the time. My new shower routine is more in the "splash and step away" vein. I also shower in two temperatures, starting cooler while I wash and condition my hair, and turning up the warmth for washing the rest of me.
7. Understand that "wash, rinse, repeat" is a fallacy. You don't need to repeat. Wash, rinse is enough.
8. Do you have a really good tub and tile cleaner? Good.
9. Buy some nail polish. Scratching one's head yields, uh ... interesting and difficult to dispell results under one's fingernails. It's easier to just cover it up.
10. If it's early on in your dye job, stay out of the rain. And no, I'm not posting pictures.
Now you're prepared! I hope that you all make haste to your hairdresser and get that coveted shade of violet or turquoise or fuscia on your head right away.
That being said, however, living with hair this color has some unique aspects to it. Here are some tips to help you live with artsy hair.
1. Expect additions to your morning routine. You get up, pour coffee, say affirmations, brush teeth, etc. etc. You will now need to add "clean ears" to that list, because overnight they will have transformed to be the same color as your hair. And this happens Every. Single. Day.
2. Invest in night cream for your face and neck. Use it every night. Not because of wrinkles, but because it makes it a lot easier to wipe the dye off your face and neck the next morning.
 |
| Here I am, rocking my purple and red combination |
4. Put away the fancy nightie. Sleep in a tye-dyed tee shirt. It makes more sense. You'll find out why.
5. Remember shower caps? Yeah. Get some.
6. Learn a new shower pattern. My shower routine generally involved me having my head under the shower head for most of the time. My new shower routine is more in the "splash and step away" vein. I also shower in two temperatures, starting cooler while I wash and condition my hair, and turning up the warmth for washing the rest of me.
7. Understand that "wash, rinse, repeat" is a fallacy. You don't need to repeat. Wash, rinse is enough.
8. Do you have a really good tub and tile cleaner? Good.
9. Buy some nail polish. Scratching one's head yields, uh ... interesting and difficult to dispell results under one's fingernails. It's easier to just cover it up.
10. If it's early on in your dye job, stay out of the rain. And no, I'm not posting pictures.
Now you're prepared! I hope that you all make haste to your hairdresser and get that coveted shade of violet or turquoise or fuscia on your head right away.
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Selling Art through Virtual Galleries: Yes or No?
Long ago, in the olden days before the Internet existed
(yes, I AM that old), artists sold art out of galleries and festivals and fairs
and “alternative spaces” like cafes and hotel lobbies. Art-buying was pretty much
always an in-person process. We artists convinced ourselves it wasn’t so
commodified as, say, buying a can of beans. With art, we told ourselves, people
came and looked closely at our work. They absorbed it. There was something
about it that sang to them. They “got” us. And then they wrote a check.
But there has always been this other story. The one where the couple at the art fair stands
in front of a truly amazing piece of artwork for nearly an hour, having a loud
disagreement as to whether that shade of green will even work with their sofa.
The one where a prospective buyer asks if you have a piece “like that one, but
horizontal” because he really needs to “just get something over the fireplace before
Sunday.” Impersonal, task-based, commodified. Not our ideal, but an element of
our reality nonetheless. People buying beans, not meaning.
That’s what the idea of selling artwork online felt like to
many of us on the first pass--impersonal, commodity-based, without the
opportunity to form any kind of artist/patron relationship. In reality, the “beanification” of artwork by
selling online is nowhere near a “thing.” In fact, if you work it right (and I
do mean WORK), it can be an opportunity to create an even stronger personal relationship
with people who do truly appreciate your art—but more about that in a later
post.
So. Should you sell art through one of the burgeoning number
of online galleries? The answer is “it depends,” both on the kind of work you
do and your goals.
Online sellers are constrained by the market, just as many
brick-and-mortar sellers are. Vango, a San Francisco-based online art gallery,
notes in its curatorial policy statement, “We want every piece to be successful
on Vango. To that end, we curate work based on whether we have an appropriate
audience to guarantee the work’s success … If your piece is not accepted, we
are not necessarily saying it’s “bad” or we don’t like it. We’re saying that we
don’t have the audience for it at this time and accepting it would harm the
overall artist community.”
Heather Robinson, a visual artist living in San Francisco,
maintains a very active gallery showing schedule for her work, but has also
ventured into online sales through Vango. “There is so much art there it can be hard to
be seen unless you spend a lot of time and effort pursuing it,” she explains. “I have sold a couple of pieces (through)
Vango, but it’s been a long time. I
think they are at least trying to be receptive to artists’ needs.”
Santa Monica, CA’s SaatchiArt and Vango offer artists 70% of
a work’s sale price and assist with shipping, marketing and record-keeping,
outstripping what many brick-and-mortar galleries are willing to do for the
artists they represent. UGallery, which
has offices in New York and San Francisco, offers a 50/50 split. All three make
a concerted effort to promote their artists within the confines of their online
homes. But all of the websites also offer
prospective buyers the opportunity to search work by generic theme, price, size
and shape. And Vango has an iPhone app for
collectors that lets them take photos of the areas in which they want to place
artwork and then search for work that … wait
for it … matches the color palette of the space.
In the final analysis, selling art online can possibly put
your work in front of new audiences that are primed and ready to buy, but there’s
no guarantee that your work will be an online success. Cutting through the noise
is crucial, but so is maintaining marketability. A “get rich quick” scheme it is not.
“I always hear stories of people selling
but I do not know any personally,” confirms Robinson.
So if your goal is to make lots of money easily … insert sad
trombone here. Not going to happen. But if you want another methodology to
potentially get your work in front of people who just might buy it, then an
online gallery could be useful for you. Your work is bound to come up in
someone’s search at some point, and who knows—you might be the exact fit for
their souls, or their sofas, and which it is might not actually matter.
In the words of the artist at the art fair who eventually
accepted a hefty four-figure check from the arguing couple in the first
paragraph, “I can appreciate a piece all
day long. But if it just sits in my studio forever, what good is that?”
Resources:
Vango Art
SaatchiArt
UGallery
“Art Galleries, Art Sales and the Internet: A Survey,”
ArtBusiness.com.
“Art Makes a Move Online,” by Scott Reyburn, The New York
Times Online, May 18, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/arts/international/Art-Makes-a-Move-Online.html?_r=0
“Small Retailers Get Good News as Online Art Sales Double, per
Hiscox Report,” by Annie Pilon, Small Business Trends, March 25, 2016. http://smallbiztrends.com/2016/03/online-art-sales-double.html
Saturday, March 05, 2016
Should You Pursue Juried Shows?
By E. Marie Robertson
Juried calls for art seem to be everywhere these days, for
everything from established galleries to “alternative spaces” like storefront
windows and vacant buildings. Opinions
about whether artists benefit from participating in such calls are equally
diverse; Juried calls
are characterized as everything from a great way for emerging artists to
build up their exhibition records to activities unworthy of ‘serious’ artists
or, at the far extreme, pure scams.
To be sure, there are calls for work out there that fit each
of these descriptions. How can you tell
the difference?
According to Benny Shaboy, editor and publisher of the
curated call list Art Opportunities Monthly and a thoughtful student of juried
calls for more than 18 years, your first step should be to check out the
website of the call’s sponsor. Adverise-y
language or hype is usually a tip-off, as are for-profit galleries that mention
additional fees for “hanging” or “initiation.” For-profit sponsors that charge a
submission fee but also offer framing, art consultation, or other paid services
for artists or customers may at best be a private business running a
competition to generate income. “It may
not be bogus, but the odds are slim that your work will be seen by the sort of
people you want it seen by, and the odds that it will sell are even slimmer,”
he explains.
“Good” calls for work may or may not charge a submission fee.
“In general, established calls that have
been around for at least a few years are better because they have worked out
the kinks,” Shaboy adds. "The prestige
of the [sponsoring] organization and/or the juror(s) should also be considered.”
So is it worth your time and sometimes money to respond to a
juried call? According to Shaboy, the answer is “it depends.”
“Entering a juried show on a whim is about as useful as
buying a lottery ticket,” he asserts. “It should be done as part of a
thoughtful plan.” Before pursuing participation in any juried show, consider where
you are in your art career, what your goals are, and whether actually getting
into that show will result in something that is specifically helpful to you,
whether that’s cash, exposure, sales, a solo show, or getting your work in
front of a particular juror.
If you’re considering submitting work to a juried show,
Shaboy offers the following tips to help you select and, ideally, be selected
by, the “right” kind of juried exhibition:
1. Pay close
attention to the sponsoring organization’s website. Look at what they seem
to feature or respond to, especially if they showcase the work of past winners.
Make sure the work featured is a good fit with your own in terms of type and
aesthetic outlook. If you find no website or a site with very little
information, strike that “opportunity” off you list, Shaboy suggests.
2. Consider the
artistic history and background of the juror(s). Google is your friend when seeking out this
type of information.
3. Make sure you meet
any specified criteria for the call, like medium, size, geographic location,
etc. Various estimates suggest that
25% to 40% of all work submitted to juried calls never makes it to the jury
because of immediate disqualification for not meeting one or more of the call’s
stated requirements. “In this case, the artist gets nothing and the organization
keeps the submission fee, “ Shaboy points out.
4. If you’re just
starting out, focus on local calls at first. They’re not only less
complicated to enter (avoiding fees for shipping work long distances), but
you also have the opportunity to follow
up by attending the show in person. This
is vital, especially if you were not accepted into the show; by attending and
looking at the work that WAS accepted, you learn what a particular juror or
organization is responding to. This is useful information for the next time you
submit.
5. Make note of
patterns you see emerging and be ready to adjust your plan accordingly—and keep
at it. If you feel juried shows are
for you, don’t give up; consider every show regardless of outcome a good
learning opportunity, Shaboy explains. “I have a good friend who started out
entering the shows put on by her local photography club. After the first two,
in which her submissions were rated last or next-to-last, she decided that the
photo club was not for her ideal venue. She began entering other shows, making the
kind of notes and observations I mentioned above, always looking for the type
of jurors and shows and competitions that seemed to fit her work best. She continued
this process for several years and as of today has had more than a dozen
important shows around the world, including museum shows. Her work is in about
20 museum collections in the US, the UK, Europe and Asia.”
Resources:
Carefully screened art opportunities list for traditional
and contemporary artists working in all media. Readers of this blog who are not already subscribers can
get an absolutely free three-month subscription to the Professional version of AOM by using this link: http://www.
Artshow
Joanne Mattera Art Blog
By Aletta de Wal
Empty Easel.com
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Busting Through Creative Block
By E. Marie Robertson
Creative block is one of the most stressful, frustrating
experiences an artist can have. There are numerous books, articles, podcasts,
blog posts and videos devoted to wrestling with it. Almost all of these works
include recommendations for dealing with creative block, but many of these “techniques”
feel like graduate school exercises which, like graduate school itself, may or
may not be helpful. Other times they come off as condescending and almost
insulting, as though the problem is simply that artists have no self-discipline
or can’t manage time.
I’ve talked to a lot of artists about their experiences with
creative block, and have my own to add. I can safely say that it’s not a one-size-fits-all
situation. Creatives experience blocks
for different reasons that often go far beyond what a one-off exercise can
cure. That means busting through your
creative block may require more than a nap or an art-school exercise.
 |
| by spinster cardigan via Flickr https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode |
The first step is to
pinpoint and truly understand the deep underlying mechanism of what creates the
blocks that you experience. This
phase of discovery is generally skipped by mainstream creativity tomes, because
it can be time-consuming, and painful and enlightening by turns. While only you
can deduce what is triggering your block, here are some common themes:
Fear. Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of
criticism, fear of falling outside or inside accepted norms. Consider the
project in front of you and ask consider whether there is fear attached to it
in any way. Why are you scared of moving forward?
Confusion. Our
brains are miraculous things, capable of holding many different ideas, goals,
and processes all at once. You may have lost track of the purpose of your work,
or let your focus become blurred by competing priorities and plans.
Mindset issues.
Your subconscious is just as miraculous as your active brain, and in some cases
it works even harder to make sure your
reality lines up with your thoughts. But
your thoughts about yourself and your artistic practice come not just from you,
but from the input and expectations of your family, your colleagues, your
upbringing, your culture, your society. If
there is dissonance between your subconscious and your conscious direction,
this can lead to all manner of self-sabotage, and what better to sabotage an
artist than creative block?
The second step is
working through the issues you identify. To truly address creative block is a process
rather than an event and may take time. Additionally, each episode of creative block
may have different triggers, so be prepared to wash, rinse, repeat.
Here are some less commonly-cited methods for tackling your
issues—although if you really WANT to take a nap, tear up something you have
deemed important, or spend the afternoon
drawing with your nondominant hand, please feel free to go ahead !
Meditation and
mindfulness
I have had a meditation practice for a very long time and
have found both scripted guided meditations and simple brief mindfulness exercises in
attention are great ways to relax the mind and jumpstart creativity.
EFT (Emotional
Freedom Technique, or “tapping”)
I don’t know why EFT works. It seems like this pattern of
tapping on your face and upper body and repeating statements that end with you
reaffirming your love and acceptance of yourself wouldn’t have any effect on
anything, but something does happen when you tap regularly. Some suggest that
it serves as a pattern interrupter, drawing our “toddler brain” away from
repetitive programming and setting a new focus in its place.
Intentionality
In the words of life coach Cheryl Richardson, “there is
amazing power in a strong intention.” If
you haven’t given thought to what your intention is in making art, now might be
a good time. Writing down what you hope to achieve with your work and setting an intention for it,
whether for the individual piece on which you feel blocked or for your artistic
practice overall if you are more generally blocked, can give you something to
grab onto whenever inspiration escapes you.
Committing to Consistency
Woody Allen famously said that 80 percent of life is showing
up, and that’s particularly true for artists who feel blocked or stymied in
their practices, according to Prague-based visual artist Jessica Serran. “I’m all about magic and miracles, but not when it comes to having a
consistent studio practice,” explains Serran, who is also leader at Source and
Sanctuary where she helps artists explore their own callings. “Consistent
creative flow comes from showing up for yourself – not from waiting for divine
inspiration to strike. Inspiration is
not a limited resource. Like solar power, that shit is renewable. The trick is
knowing that you have the power to usher inspiration in."
Resources:
Jessica Serran
Source and Sanctuary—A Field Guide to
Uncharted Creative Callings
Emotional Freedom Technique: Basic Steps to
Your Emotional Freedom
Julie Schiffman
Mercola
Why EFT Could Very Well Be Just the Right
Thing for You
Brad Yates
Tapwithbrad.com
How Mindfulness Can Help Your Creativity
George Hofmann
Psych Central
What Daily Meditation Can Do For Your
Creativity
Mark McGuinness
99U by Behance
Exploring Intention: Setting an Intention
for Creativity
Chel Micheline
Bliss Habits
5 Steps to Setting Powerful Intentions
Deepak Chopra, MD
The Chopra Center
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Busting the Bullshit Myth of the Starving Artist
by E. Marie Robertson
Society loves the "starving artist" myth, and we creatives are fed it from an early age. It infects us, and it infects the people who are potential buyers of our artwork. The poor struggling artist, painting feverishly in his or her sparse freezing garret, is a universal stereotype that is played out everywhere from classic literature to the nightly news. But there is some insidious doublespeak going on at the same time. Consider this: even while describing the desperate situation of "many artists" in a recent article about subsidized housing programs for creatives (one featured artist was, in fact, homeless), Bloomberg Business also heralded artists' "bankable cache."
So which is it? Are artists struggling, unappreciated, starving, broke? Or are artists "bankable"?
That. Is. Such. Bullshit.
I'm a sincere believer in the idea that we become the stories we tell ourselves. If you're trapped in the "struggling" cycle, breaking out might need to start in your head. Here are some important points to address to remove the labels and stop living the stereotype.
1. Watch Your Language. How do you describe yourself to others? What kinds of words do you use to characterize your life, your work, the lives and work of other artists? Stop painting yourself as struggling, starving, broke, unsuccessful, unappreciated, underpaid, etc. in your everyday conversations ... even the ones you have with yourself. You're only making that stereotype stronger, even if you're under the impression that you're just kidding when you say it. Language creates specific pathways in your brain that affect behavior. Don't create any more of the "wrong" ones.
Steps to take: First, just try to notice every time you use a derogatory or negative word or phrase in normal conversation about yourself, your work, your financial standing. Make a list of the ones that appear most often and the situations in which they come up. Now, create positive or nonjudgmental replacements for those negative turns of phrase so they don't come to define you over the long term. Make this a continual practice! You will be shocked by how automatic self-deprecation can be.
2. Explode Self-Limiting Beliefs. Many of us have swallowed whole the fallacy that poverty and struggle, especially for emerging artists, is some kind of litmus test to gauge how "good" or "serious" we are about our work. The next time you tell yourself you're broke because you are truly devoted to your craft and make "serious" art, think about whether or not Cindy Sherman, Ai Wei Wei, Gerhard Richter, Andreas Gursky or Chuck Close make "serious" artwork, or seem "devoted" to their craft. "Serious" is not the opposite of "saleable," nor is "real" the opposite of "successful."
Steps to take: Remove judgement from the equation. Make your work. If your response to the list above was "But that's them, that's not me. I'm no Chuck Close," ask yourself why not? If you're doing something you believe in, you are no different than them. If you find yourself feeling tinges of jealousy over other artists' success, transform that emotion into confirmation that artists CAN be successful, and that includes you.
3. Kick Your Fears to the Curb. Do you have specific fears connected to success and prosperity? This can be linked to #3 ("If my artwork is popular, it can't be very good."), or can be much more personal ("If I succeed as an artist it will mean my mother, who always told me I would never make any money as an artist, would be wrong and I can't make mom wrong."). You might even be worried that if you make "too much" money, you'll draw the negative attention of the IRS or have to set boundaries with a deadbeat relative who is always asking everyone for financial help. It doesn't matter if the fears are large or small, totally illogical or highly likely. It's our most powerful motivator, and can keep you trapped in a very tight space for a lifetime.
Steps to take: Make a long exhaustive list of everything that worries you about potential success and prosperity. Include everything you can think of, no matter how tangential or silly it seems. Now go through that list and carefully, realistically consider the likelihood of that fear coming to pass ... and what it would mean and what you would do about it. Understanding your fears in context enables you to address them so they no longer have power over you.
4. Begin Evaluating Where You Need Help ... and Get It. What's holding you back? Money blocks? Creative issues? Deep psychological conditioning around success and failure? No understanding of how to sell your art or promote yourself? There are coaches on top of coaches available to work with you, and many of them offer very solid free introductory courses or training sessions online. You'll also find many of these concerns addressed in best-selling books and online vehicles like TED Talks and blogs. Depending on where you live, you may also find some great options locally, like artists' guilds and collaboratives, small business advisors, or other community college or Learning Annex courses to help you approach your practice like the successful positive experience it should be.
Additional Resources:
Oldham, Jennifer. "Dream Apartments for $582 a Month -- If You're a Starving Artist." Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 20 Nov. 2015. Web. 10 Feb. 2016. <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-20/dream-apartments-for-582-a-month-if-you-re-a-starving-artist>.
Zaidi, Nida. "Top 10 Richest Painters of 2015." Smart Earning Methods. N.p., 22 Oct. 2014. Web. <http://www.smartearningmethods.com/top-10-richest-painters-world-2015/>.
Coming up next week on ArtLifeNow: Breaking Through Creative Blocks
Society loves the "starving artist" myth, and we creatives are fed it from an early age. It infects us, and it infects the people who are potential buyers of our artwork. The poor struggling artist, painting feverishly in his or her sparse freezing garret, is a universal stereotype that is played out everywhere from classic literature to the nightly news. But there is some insidious doublespeak going on at the same time. Consider this: even while describing the desperate situation of "many artists" in a recent article about subsidized housing programs for creatives (one featured artist was, in fact, homeless), Bloomberg Business also heralded artists' "bankable cache."
So which is it? Are artists struggling, unappreciated, starving, broke? Or are artists "bankable"?
That. Is. Such. Bullshit.
I'm a sincere believer in the idea that we become the stories we tell ourselves. If you're trapped in the "struggling" cycle, breaking out might need to start in your head. Here are some important points to address to remove the labels and stop living the stereotype.
1. Watch Your Language. How do you describe yourself to others? What kinds of words do you use to characterize your life, your work, the lives and work of other artists? Stop painting yourself as struggling, starving, broke, unsuccessful, unappreciated, underpaid, etc. in your everyday conversations ... even the ones you have with yourself. You're only making that stereotype stronger, even if you're under the impression that you're just kidding when you say it. Language creates specific pathways in your brain that affect behavior. Don't create any more of the "wrong" ones.
Steps to take: First, just try to notice every time you use a derogatory or negative word or phrase in normal conversation about yourself, your work, your financial standing. Make a list of the ones that appear most often and the situations in which they come up. Now, create positive or nonjudgmental replacements for those negative turns of phrase so they don't come to define you over the long term. Make this a continual practice! You will be shocked by how automatic self-deprecation can be.
2. Explode Self-Limiting Beliefs. Many of us have swallowed whole the fallacy that poverty and struggle, especially for emerging artists, is some kind of litmus test to gauge how "good" or "serious" we are about our work. The next time you tell yourself you're broke because you are truly devoted to your craft and make "serious" art, think about whether or not Cindy Sherman, Ai Wei Wei, Gerhard Richter, Andreas Gursky or Chuck Close make "serious" artwork, or seem "devoted" to their craft. "Serious" is not the opposite of "saleable," nor is "real" the opposite of "successful."
Steps to take: Remove judgement from the equation. Make your work. If your response to the list above was "But that's them, that's not me. I'm no Chuck Close," ask yourself why not? If you're doing something you believe in, you are no different than them. If you find yourself feeling tinges of jealousy over other artists' success, transform that emotion into confirmation that artists CAN be successful, and that includes you.
3. Kick Your Fears to the Curb. Do you have specific fears connected to success and prosperity? This can be linked to #3 ("If my artwork is popular, it can't be very good."), or can be much more personal ("If I succeed as an artist it will mean my mother, who always told me I would never make any money as an artist, would be wrong and I can't make mom wrong."). You might even be worried that if you make "too much" money, you'll draw the negative attention of the IRS or have to set boundaries with a deadbeat relative who is always asking everyone for financial help. It doesn't matter if the fears are large or small, totally illogical or highly likely. It's our most powerful motivator, and can keep you trapped in a very tight space for a lifetime.
Steps to take: Make a long exhaustive list of everything that worries you about potential success and prosperity. Include everything you can think of, no matter how tangential or silly it seems. Now go through that list and carefully, realistically consider the likelihood of that fear coming to pass ... and what it would mean and what you would do about it. Understanding your fears in context enables you to address them so they no longer have power over you.
4. Begin Evaluating Where You Need Help ... and Get It. What's holding you back? Money blocks? Creative issues? Deep psychological conditioning around success and failure? No understanding of how to sell your art or promote yourself? There are coaches on top of coaches available to work with you, and many of them offer very solid free introductory courses or training sessions online. You'll also find many of these concerns addressed in best-selling books and online vehicles like TED Talks and blogs. Depending on where you live, you may also find some great options locally, like artists' guilds and collaboratives, small business advisors, or other community college or Learning Annex courses to help you approach your practice like the successful positive experience it should be.
Additional Resources:
Oldham, Jennifer. "Dream Apartments for $582 a Month -- If You're a Starving Artist." Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 20 Nov. 2015. Web. 10 Feb. 2016. <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-20/dream-apartments-for-582-a-month-if-you-re-a-starving-artist>.
Zaidi, Nida. "Top 10 Richest Painters of 2015." Smart Earning Methods. N.p., 22 Oct. 2014. Web. <http://www.smartearningmethods.com/top-10-richest-painters-world-2015/>.
Coming up next week on ArtLifeNow: Breaking Through Creative Blocks
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