Recently I have been experiencing what I call style dilemma...it's an art thing. It's this overwhelming fear I feel that my body of work is not cohesive...on top of all that other stuff I just mentioned. When it gets really bad I develop what I have dubbed clean slate mentality, the idea that I should just start over. I have such difficulty blending my past work and style into the new direction I want to take my art (which is always changing) I feel like my old work is holding me back and the new art is too different from the old, I'm essentially stuck in art limbo....purgatory. I've been reevaluating a lot and have decided to take the next three months off from making any 'work' per say and just doing art, no matter if its paintings or mixed media or crochet for all I care...I'm just going to make what I want to and see what comes out of the experiment. The stress of my style dilemma is holding me back and I'm hoping going freestyle will in fact... free me. I will be relying on my current collection and the pieces I have completed for botanica to sustain me during this time.
On that note....and I write this not only for myself but for every artist out there, emerging or established, young or old. If you are an art collector, supporter, fan, friend, family etc of an artist please realize the following. If you are at an art show, gallery, craft fair, coffee shop wherever, and you truly LIKE someones art, buy it! If you cannot afford the original, buy a print, If you have absolutely no room for any more framed art in your house, buy that $5 notecard or mini they have and use it as a bookmark! Come on, you're latte costs more than that every day and...yep its gone, you drank it. However by actually supporting that artist even if it's in the smallest tiniest way (sign up for their email list and share their art with your friends) by buying that little print of their work, that allows them to feel relevant and keep doing what they do, they might be at that show again next year with new art for you to look at! They might make the next best piece of art around! But artists need their supporters (Like every other business out there) to keep going. And let me tell you, when we do make that sale with you even if it's small, it matters. Personally it gets me excited, when I have a good show, I want to get right back in the studio and make something new! I want to find better ways to get my art out there I want to take more risks (and this is really the only way to go forward)
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Whereas after a slow showing, I feel as I described in paragraph one, defeated. I wonder why I dragged 25 pounds of art up and down two flights of stairs to a city 137 miles away from where I live, why I took off of work to be there, stayed up extra late making sure everything was perfect, wore foot killing demon shoes for 5 hours and smiled the whole time. Why? Because it's a dream I can't stop dreaming. I don't think it's going to be easy, I'm not expecting cupcakes and unicorns and glitter (okay maybe a little glitter) But the point of this blog is to let you in, to let you see what it is really like. and sometimes it's a struggle. So there, I was honest, I'm an artist and it's hard and I need you all more than you know. But like I said it's a dream I can't stop dreaming and I hope I get to keep doing this for a long time.... XO
#art #artwork #artist #struggle #dream #hardwork #lifestyle #artlife #dontstop #fans #support #honest #truth
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