How the hustle culture can be dangerous for artists
The pressure to monetize your craft is strong
“Oh, I love your pottery — you should totally sell them on Etsy!”
“I saw your paintings in your Instagram story — have you ever considered selling them online?”
If you have ever done anything remotely creative and shared your creations with others, chances are high that someone at some point has told you to monetize your craft. After all, the internet has given every single person on the planet the opportunity to create a one-man business. Etsy. Amazon. Instagram. It seems like everyone nowadays is selling something. Somehow, you almost see yourself as a loser if you don’t have at least one side business that is fuelled by your passions and the things you love.
And don’t get me wrong. I LOVE side businesses and doing things that you love. In fact, I think we should all aspire to live a life that is driven by things we actually give a damn about. What I am talking about is this immense, baseless pressure that many of us, especially those with a specific talent or artistic inclination, put on ourselves “to make it” in the eyes of the glittery online public. After all, there are so many out there who did it, so why can’t I? If I just hustle hard enough, I should be able to make it too, right? If I just work another 5 hours after my day job on my real passion, sleep only 4 hours a day, sacrifice my social life, and create as many paintings as humanly possible — one better than the other, then I should make it too, right?
Right???
Hello??
*crickets*
You see how that escalated quickly.
Again, I am not saying that working hard on your dream is bad. Nothing good ever came from just doing the same things, day in, day out. In fact, that is the definition of crazy — doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. And yes, overcoming the innate inertia in us is difficult. However, your specific mindset and management of expectations are the ultimate key here.
These are my main problems with hustle culture, especially for artists:
Hustle Culture and The Valley of Despair
In every endeavor, you will first feel an exaggerated sense of optimism. However, as good things take time, the likelihood of succeeding in the first few weeks, months (and if we’re honest, even years) is rather low. You paint and paint, and make your pottery, and boom — nothing happens. You soon enter the Valley of Despair.
Anyone who ever tried to do anything will eventually reach the Valley of Despair. But for artists, this is even worse. Artistry comes from a very intimate and personal part of our being, and if that fire goes out because of this sense of dread and despair, it is very difficult to light back on. Believe me, I have been there, and am still trying to create that spark again.
The pressure to create will make you create NOTHING
Artistic work should come from what psychologists call “the flow”. That seemingly natural flowing force with no resistance where you are free to create, free from pressure, free from expectation. It just is. It just flows. From my own experience, this is when I created the best art. As soon as I put arbitrary pressure on myself, like “I NEED TO RUN DOWN TO THE LAKE NOW TO PHOTOGRAPH THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS THERE”, I just end up not doing it. The hustle culture has no regard for the psychological and mental mindset that is required to actually create good art. You need to be able to separate yourself from external forces and focus solely on the object of your desire. In hustle culture, it is all about efficiency, quantity, and optimization. Art does not necessarily follow these rules.
Hustle culture ruins your management of expectations
Let’s face it — not all of us are gonna become Picasso, Monet, or Oscar Wilde. Just because you didn’t receive worldwide recognition, your artwork is not hanging in the MoMA and your novel didn’t win the Nobel Prize doesn’t mean that it isn’t any good. But we see others online with all their milestones and successes that we begin to compare our lives to theirs.
Oftentimes, we compare our step 1 to their step 100. And there is nothing more discouraging than that. Then we feel bad, pack that camera away for months, the paintbrushes are collecting dust, and without notice, a year went by and you didn’t do anything.
How to succeed in your art then
As mentioned, art is a mindset. Change your mind and you change your world.
Instead of saying, “I *have to* create these 10 artworks because I want to submit them to a show” say
“I *want* to create these 10 artworks because I want to create them.” Period.
And once you are done, you can still always submit them.
Instead of saying, “I *have to* improve my pottery skills, so that in a few months, I will have better products than the other Etsy sellers”, say
“I *want* to improve my pottery skills because I ENJOY THIS CRAFT.” Period.
Remember that you started a certain craft because you ENJOYED it. You LIKED doing it. Maybe you even LOVED doing it.
I personally created the best art when I focused on the art itself. Not on some obscure vision of the future where I will be this and that, and this and that. This was the mindset that also got my photography to be shortlisted in a prestigious contest at a gallery in Berlin. I was so enamored by the artistic process, that I almost forgot that I was supposed to submit it somewhere.
Pressure is good but not when it crushes you to paralysis
Some pressure is necessary, don’t get me wrong. You can only improve if there is a strong desire to achieve something, which automatically creates pressure. But not pressure for the sake of.
In closing
In closing, what I am really trying to say is that DO YOUR ART BECAUSE YOU ENJOY IT. Do your art because it’s fun. Learn, improve, and finish something because you are doing it for YOURSELF as an artist. The rest will follow. And yeah, maybe you won’t become this generation’s Picasso, but so what. Art is about creation. Creating something that wasn’t there before. How many people can say that about themselves? Creators are a special breed, so take pride in your work and in yourself. And once you are ready to go the next step and monetize your craft, you will face it with a much more mature, sound, and peaceful mindset, as opposed to creating art because that girl on Instagram with 100,000 followers did it too.
It’s all in the mindset. You got this.
