Check Your Expectations of Your Craft
Why is that we expect our art to do so much for us? We want our art to define us, explain us, feed us, be our catharsis, and we want our art to be our way out. Our way of life. Yet we clam up to share our art. Deny our art when we’re going through certain things in life, leaving it shut up inside us crying to be let out.
Having (high) expectations of something can affect our relationship with it. It’s sticky when our vision isn’t reflected our reality. Often, getting the right eyes on our work is a big obstacle. Many things can keep us from filling our potential that has nothing to do with the art in and of itself.
What if instead our art were something we make space for? Space that allows that art to come through us. Treating art as a living thing inside of us and not just the privileges and perks of being a (tortured) creative. Art as a respected responsibility. We clear out part of our days to give this thing room to grow and take whatever shape it needs to take.
It’s a different kind of dynamic. We all have these specific, unique experiences that make us, and the art is a reflection of that, but we don’t own the art really. It’s not something we possess and can always call on at will. We have no logic to map out how or why we create what we create it. Otherwise, we could be intentional and cultivate the next Basquiat.
After you make room for your musings, share your process and the final products. Put a price tag on it and let everyone you know about your work for sale. Look for the yes. Yes to a show, to the next town over who wants you, to a collaboration, to opportunities with fans you connect with.
I’m not saying it’s a simple switch of the hat between art and business. I am saying that if you make space for your art, you will have something real that will connect with an audience somewhere. Getting your art to that audience is another side of that journey. But there won’t be a journey if you don’t make the space for your art.
What are three things you can do today to make more space for your art?
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