This is the sixth post in the series ‘Thoughts on be(com)ing an artist‘

Why do you want to be an artist? Well, obviously you like to make art ;)

But things aren’t always as simple as that. If you’re feeling blocked, or even if you don’t (yet), it’s a good idea to investigate your reasons for be(com)ing an artist.

Let me explain this:
When I look at why I want to be an artist, what I’m hoping to get out of it, there are a few things that come to mind.
The most obvious is the joy it brings to create and to watch art develop in front of your eyes and under your hands. The feeling of flow, inspiration and intuitive play that it brings when things are going well. The aliveness I feel when my mind is open and creativity can run free.
It is through art that I am learning to follow my heart, my instincts and I learn to stop overthinking everything I do.

Ofcourse all of that wasn’t on my mind when I started this creative journey. It all started by following my excitement for certain forms of art I had seen, and the wish to try it for myself.

But while I’m progressing on my journey I run into obstacles. Other feelings start to surface: Thoughts of not being good enough, and feelings of frustration about it.
When I look closely at where those feelings are coming from, I notice that it originates from a deeper issue, something that keeps coming back to me in different forms: A need to accomplish something worthy of showing others, in order to gain their attention and respect. And besides that, the deep wish to create my own dream job (preferably immediately), so I can stop working at the crappy one I’m in right now.

This deeper problem is making it really difficult for me to get into that state of free, intuitive creating that I’m searching for.
But by becoming aware of it I can transform these thoughts and emotions and balance myself again.

When I really think about it, the only reason I want to have for making art is because I love doing it.
I don’t have to prove myself to anybody, my art is worthy of showing, imperfections and all. Maybe even more so because of these imperfections.
And my dream job will come, when it’s time, if I just keep doing what I love, without forcing anything.

I keep slipping back into the old, bad way of thinking and I know I need to keep repeating to myself what I really want, what is actually important. I hope my mind and being will eventually catch on and I can let go of the old habit, because it’s not helping me at all.

Get to know your reasons and make it clear for yourself what you really want.
Is it that you just want to create art because you love doing it or could it be something else? A need for attention, or rebelling against someone telling you you can’t or shouldn’t do it?
Do you feel you have to be an accomplished artist? And if so, why? Do you feel you have something to prove or is it solely the joy of creating for a living?

Whatever your reasons may be, make sure they’re positive ones. Make sure they’re ideas that lovingly motivate you to continue and enjoy yourself!

This is the fifth post in the series ‘Thoughts on be(com)ing an artist‘

After talking about the creative process, I’d like to talk about creative blocks that might be holding you back from creating (or creating more).

There can be many things holding you back from being creative: a lack of time, energy, money, confidence. The inner critic might also like to jump at any chance to tell you that you’re not good enough, not creative enough, that you can’t draw realistically (obviously it thinks that’s important) or that you’ll never be as good as all the ‘real’ artists out there.

That last thing has been on my mind lately as I was starting the layers of color workshop by Stephanie Corfee. The ease with which she creates her artwork, plus the amount of pretty art made by the other participants that’s being uploaded to the flickr group is kind of intimidating. They’re so good, there’s no way I can match that. Ever.
And because of these blocking thoughts I had difficulty getting started. I wasn’t making anything, bad or good.

I’m pretty sure that most creative blocks are mental ones (yes, even the time, energy and money things can be mostly mental blocks. Time: Create in small steps each day. A lot can get done that way too! Money: What can you do with supplies you already own? Can you create with found objects?) and they’re caused by negative thinking (or are at least worsened by it).
To be able to get rid of the blocks it’s important to find a different perspective. One that is helpful to you instead of harmful.

Think about, or try to write down, what is stopping you in your creativity. What is your inner critic telling you?
Then try to think about whetter or not it is helping you to listen to it. Does it help you in doing what you want to do and move forward? Is the answer no? Then it’s time for a new and improved way of thinking.

In the above example it wasn’t helping me to compare myself to others or to presume to that I didn’t have it in me to be that good. I don’t know what I have inside of me until I give it a chance to come out. I signed up for the class to learn and sucking and then getting better is kind of the point.
Exhale.
Now I can move forward again.

Another example of changing perspective:
At the moment I’m nearing 30 weeks of pregnancy. My physical condition is making it harder and harder for me to do everything that I want to do (frustrating!). My time and energy to be busy are limited, so I have to use them wisely ;). Ofcourse my inner critic can’t help itself from getting involved and so I kept thinking about all the things I want to do but can’t and that when I do get to doing something, it has to be good.
Block, block and block.
When I became aware of these thoughts, I was able to stop them.
Ok. So I can’t do everything that I want to do. But what can I do? What do I have the time and energy for?
Browsing online, gathering ideas, sketching and making sure I have something to jump right into when I have the chance.

Changing my way of thinking like that has helped me to become unblocked. I’m still getting hardly anything done at this time, but at least my mind is open to creativity again and that improves my mood quite a bit :)

The inner critic’s message

When you struggle with your inner critic, don’t immidiately decide to ignore it when it’s being mean to you. There might actually be a useful message it’s trying to tell you, when you dig a little deeper.
I often think my artwork sucks. It’s too simple, flat, uninteresting. I can ignore that thought and keep making art (and that I should!), but when I take a good look at the negative thoughts and examine what is bothering me in my art and what I can do to change it, I keep coming back to my wish to create more layers in my work to give it more richness and create interest.
In that, I need to consider if it really is my thought that my art is ‘too simple’ and needs more, or that it is an idea I got somewhere else, that art needs to be layered and complex to be interesting and beautiful. To me, it’s probably a little bit of both, so I need to find a balance that suits me and work on my layering skills.

Art is a process
See artmaking as a process. Not as a process to make something that has to be great, but as a way of finding out what you like, what suits you as an artist.

Being an artist doesn’t mean you have to be a master at one form of art or another. It means you make art and you grow as you go along your journey. An artist, or a person in general, is never done learning and growing. If you think you have to reach some sort of state or level before you can call yourself an artist, you might never reach that point.And who decides where that point or level will be anyway? Who decides what’s enough?

I recently found a good way for me to get the focus off of the need to create something amazing. Listening to music! When I focus my mind on that and use artmaking as a means to keep my hands busy in the mean time, it makes it easier to just play :)

This is the fourth post in the series ‘Thoughts on be(com)ing an artist‘

I can get really jealous of people who are working on 365 projects or artists who are in some other way creating every day. They get so much work done and learn so much about the medium they’re working in.
I know for myself that I can’t create every day. Not even close.When I look at my life on a day to day basis, I probably only create (part of) something once or twice a week. Tops. On other days I take small steps or don’t go beyond reading a few blogs or flipping through art books for inspiration.

There have been times that I felt frustrated about how slow things go and how long it can take for an idea to develop into something I can actually work on outside of my head.
I have thought about becoming more productive if I would just give myself a kick in the pants and start, or set myself a goal of creating for, let’s say, 30 minutes each day. But in that way I don’t enjoy creating, it just feels unnatural and forced. My natural pace of working is slooooow. I need a lot of time to let ideas grow inside my head. Plus, I need a lot of variation; I can’t work on something a few days in a row, I get bored that way, I stop feeling excited about what I’m doing.
It took me a while to figure out these things about myself and my process but it has brought me much peace to know, and especially, to accept it.

I urge you to get to know your own process. This means letting go of the idea of how you want your process to be and really look at yourself from a distance and feel what works for you and what doesn’t.

Whatever works for you is what works. Don’t ever let that voice in your head tell you that that’s not ok, that your process isn’t what an artists process should be like!

Getting to know your process

Getting to know your process will take time. It is a process in itself!

Some things to think about or to experiment with to find out what it does for you:

• Do you work better in long stretches or small spurts?
• Do you like to work in one medium for a whole week, month or year before switching to something else (if at all) or would you rather work on something else every day/time. Or maybe even do multiple things on one day?
• Do you create every day, two days a week or only on weekends? During the day, early in the morning or late at night?
• Do you need to know beforehand what you’ll make, is a general idea enough, or can you sit down, play and find the ideas as you go along?
• Maybe you need to clear your head (by meditating/exercising/reading a book/..) before you start creating?

Don’t pressure yourself in finding your way and try not to get frustrated when something doesn’t work for you. Finding what doesn’t work brings you one step closer to finding out what does work.

Not creating can be part of it too!

Take into consideration that you’re not only creating when the pencil hits the paper or the brush the canvas (or whatever other creative thing you might be doing). Flipping through art books, reading blogs, watching YouTube video’s, all that is just as much part of the creative process. Remember that an idea needs time to develop in your head, and that it gets fueled by other artists and by life around you.
Even doing nothing creative at all can be (and should be!) part of the creative process. You’re giving yourself the space to let things develop subconsiously. You’ll come back fresh and will still have moved forward.
It’s all part of it, and I hope you can (learn to) embrace every aspect of the process! Life is more fun that way :)