An artist e-mailed me recently with some questions about where her artistic career is headed. She’s enjoyed a lot of success, but sees a need for change in her designs, for health reasons. She’s anxious that the changes will affect her success. What should she do?
As I typed the last two sentences, it became clear to me what she can do. I almost wrote, “She’s afraid…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. Because I realized that once SHE knows exactly what she is afraid of, she will be able to make her decisions.
Some artists get to a point where something they make is wildly successful. But they are tired of making it. Should they stop making it? Or would that be foolish because it makes them money?
MY take on this would be, if you feel forced into doing something you don’t want to do because it pays the bills, then you are no better off than if you were working at a salaried job. Obviously, ANY work you do (whether it’s yours or someone else’s) has low spots and funky places. But if you really don’t enjoy even MAKING the damn thing anymore, why are you choosing that? Choosing art or craft sometimes means we give up other, safer courses. Why would we give up those safer shores to do something we DON’T want to do?
(Okay, okay. I make some stuff I'm not as wild about anymore, because the money it makes generates cash flow to fund my higher goals. But I'm also saying "no" to this more often. And I limit how much of this I do. It SUPPORTS my goals, it doesn't replace or supercede them.)
But I will never tell someone else to think that way. I don’t have to put food on the table with my business, though I constantly think about what changes I might have to make if I did. (I’m hoping my business will continue to build over the years so that point is moot.) I don’t think I have the right to tell someone else what their financial priorities should be.
What if health or physical problems intervene? Then you still have choices. You can figure out how to keep doing your art in a way that lessens the impact to your body. Or spend less time doing it. Or you can take it as a sign that it’s time to let go and change what you do. This is the C word I wrote about a few days ago—CHANGE. It’s hard, it’s frightening, it’s not something most people choose. It’s often forced upon them. But great things can come of it, if you are open to it.
Finally, let’s return to the opening paragraph. “She’s afraid….” Of what? Right now, it’s obvious that FEAR delaying the decision to change. (Let’s also acknowledge that ACCEPTING the way things are now is also a change, a change of perception of the situation.)
The first thing this person must do is figure out where the fear is coming from. Because when fear is in the driver’s seat, determining where you'll go, I can guarantee you will NOT like the scenery.
Before you can choose what is really in your heart, you must recognize the fear that blocks your view of it. Look at the fear, see it for what it is. It’s usually anxiety about an imagined failure or humiliation, and it’s usually about something that will either never actually happen, or wouldn’t be so awful if it DID happen.
As they say in cognitive therapy, “What’s the worst that could happen?”
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. I refuse to live life anticipating the worst that could happen. I CHOOSE to believe in the potential of creativity to transform the world—one tiny piece of art at a time. And it starts here, with mine.
The world needs my art. The world needs your art. It needs the very best you can do. It needs the art you LOVE to make, whatever you choose to make and however you choose to make it.
