The Art of Being an Artist

As my Grandma used to say ‘Dance with the one whut brung ya’ (she had, I need to say, excellent grammar and diction; the saying worked better dressed down). It has to do with selling out. And dabbling.

Define your boundaries – it’s the kind of phrase that gets overused to the point of being meaningless, but like most cliches, it holds a powerful truth.

Do you deserve success? For many years, I felt that “If you have to ask…”, which naturally made it a huge impediment to my career!

Going with the flow is one of the most insidious and destructive behaviors of western civilization. And somehow creative types have become the standard-bearers for it.

Ah, the dreaded Artistic Slump. How many times have we sat in front of a blank canvas or empty piece of paper and stalled?

I’ve never met an artist – including me early on – who on some level didn’t buy into the philosophy of Emerson’s theory:“If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.” Pfhfhfht.

As I’ve had some success as an artist, I get comments about selling out all the time (some earnest, some snide). Art and commerce are NOT mutually exclusive…

Will you be discovered? This is a fantasy most of us have from time to time. It’s kind of like the Hollywood story of the waitress scooped from obscurity and made into a movie star. Uh huh…