Envy, Inequality, and Snobbery: Traditional Measurements for Success Kinda Suck

"What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas, and make sure that we own them, that we are truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it's bad enough, not getting what you want, but it's even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of a journey, that it isn't, in fact, what you wanted all along."

- Wicked-smart Alain de Botton, smacking all of us upside the face with some rock-solid truth.

Can I get a "AMEN," people?!

Seriously, let's take a look at the metrics we measure success by. Money. Fame. Sex Appeal. What's the problem with all three of these?

Oh yeah, they're entirely based on external forces that are beyond your control. Money will come, and money will go (just ask my wallet). Fame is like a viral video - it tends to happen by accident, and one day you wake up and realize no one's watching you anymore.

And sex appeal? Marilyn might have said it best:

"We all lose our shape in the end."

Ah yes, gather ye roses while ye may, beauties -- but don't forget that those roses are going to fade and die just like everything else.


Woah there, downer post, Kate.

Believe me, I realize that this isn't the kind of message that you might want to hear, but basing your success metric on Money, Fame, or Sex Appeal is about as reliable as leaving a giant chunk of cheese on the kitchen counter and trusting that your dog isn't going to eat it. I'm speaking from experience here: don't trust the dog.

When it comes to feeling satisfied and successful in your life, deep down inside you know what you need to do. The trick is learning to leave behind all those other measurements that society tries to make force on you.

Take it from India.Arie, then get out there and write your own.

Wreck This Journey Week 2 - Four Letter Words

That's right, the vlog is back -- and this time, I'm actually starting to understand editing!

Be sure to leave your suggestions for ways to improve our videos in the comments below, or tell us about your experience with Wreck This Journal. Don't forget -- we want to see your blogs too -- just email them to theartabyss@gmail.com, and we'll post them up here on the blog and on our YouTube channel.

Until next time, happy scribbling, and make sure to check out my second-ever vlog attempt - and goofy frozen face - below:

Back To Reality - It's Budget Time!

Epic Leap of Faith Is Epic

Did you watch yesterday's video from Shane Pearlman? Because hot damn, I want that life. Not only has he been able to grow his business to the point that he's actually turning down legitimate clients (not just the crazy ones, actual clients that he would like to work for but just doesn't have the time!), but his business allows him time to surf, a beautiful house, time with his family, and a life he loves. Hard life, right?

In all seriousness, it does seem difficult - even unimaginable sometimes - to reach that point where your art is fully supporting you. And Shane doesn't talk about how his wallet was able to handle those first steps out into the big scary world of freelancing. He says it took time, and it took learning how to sell his services. But what do you do in the meantime, when you're still that baby freelancer with minimal experience and no nationwide network to draw on?

Kids, it's time to make a budget. Let's start with figuring out where your income's coming from:

Pack a Parachute

When I quit my 9 to 5 back in January, I had a couple regular side jobs that helped cushion the fall in income. When Kadie was starting her photography business, she was also working part-time. Freelancing -- whether you're working commercially or in a fine art field -- is choosing to go without the protection that working for a company provides. Having that alternate gig is a good way to make sure that when things get slow in your freelance life, you still have some cashflow - especially if you're trying to leave the days of renting a closet and existing on Ramen back in college where they belong. Just make sure that you're also leaving enough time to work on your business, and enough time to take care of your mental and physical health.
Feel like you're juggling too much now? Just wait!

And now, for something entirely different -- again.

With all this talk of travel, we figure it's time for a change of scenery on the blog too. Today I'm in Chicago -- and about to go have my mind blown all over again at the Art Institute. The best part about that? I'm taking you along for the ride! 

Come join me over ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE for a running photo stream documenting the vibrant beautiful mess of buildings, people, and energy that is Chicago. When this is what you see outside your hotel window, you know it's going to be a good day.

Take 5 With Kylin Jewell

We get back into our Take 5 series with Kylin Jewell, a multi-talented and multi-passionate artist who's come to some pretty significant realizations in her life post- art school. Check it out! 

Name: Kylin Jewell

Creative Specialties:
Drawing, painting, dancing (ballet, jazz, modern) aerial silks, yoga… being up-side-down, hula-hooping, jewelry making, hair/ makeup, modeling, sewing and costume design, basic wood and metal-working, teaching any of these activities…

Current Location: 
Tucson, AZ

Mini Bio:
Kylin Jewell’s art is documentation of the processes she employs to uncover the relationship between emotion and emotive content. To one degree or another her work has always revolved around a central idea of feeling held captive by our own thoughts, actions, and the ‘inner realities’– or the escape to sublime states of being after the process of letting go, meditating, and allowing for a more spiritual connection. In a sense, her ultimate goal in creating is to tap into the universal experience of feeling.

Kylin was born in 1986 in Tucson, Arizona where she has spent 26 years improving on and perfecting her passion. In 2005 she graduated from Tucson High Magnet School with a performing arts endorsement and was credited for her AP 2-D portfolio. In May of 2010 she received a BA in 2-D design with an emphasis in painting from the University of Arizona. In August she will leave behind her desert home for life in the city of Chicago. Here, she will delve further in her interest in the ‘inner-self’ and begin her career in Art Therapy.

Website:
Currently, some of my artwork can be seen through my Facebook page. In the fall, I will have a website running through SAIC.

5 realizations I had that changed my life and the way I define myself as an artist:

DREAM BIG
1) If money was no object, what would you make?

I think it’s important to remember that we are all creative beings. Some of us don’t tap into it, or have little faith in our artistic ability and thusly do not nourish the imaginative spirit. Many have ways of being creative that aren’t in our traditional definition of the term so they don’t recognize their potential.

That’s why I have chosen to introduce myself with my dreams…

This is why I (we) create. Because we are able to dream.

If I had all of the financial resources imaginable, and could employ a crew of any number, I would make… SO MANY THINGS!!!

First and foremost, I would knock out the brilliant interactive idea my significant other and myself proposed to the Burning Man grant committee this year. It is a large-scale, multi-medium, interactive, two-phase sculpture with fire elements.

It would be nice not to feel limited in terms of resources for completing more paintings and drawings, but my interest in art has developed into something that goes beyond satisfying an internal need to make something that is both aesthetically pleasing and healing for myself anymore.
I want to, and will - after two years at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Master’s in Art Therapy program starting this Fall! – be in the position to help others find their voice and discover healing through art making. As made obvious by the career I am pursuing, I am more interested in being a first-hand witness to the emotional response to a project and getting the audience involved in the creative process than I am in fulfilling documentation of the images and designs constantly swirling through my mind. I want to know how opening a conversation about art, through the act of creation, can not only bring people together but can also help individuals work through any dis-ease in their lives. I trust in my creativity to bring joy into my own life.
I suppose I am just curious to know if my beliefs can be supported. If art making affects the minds and hearts of all beings in the same manner, and, if it does, I would like to uncover its potential for emotional/ psychological rebuilding in all beings.

In a magical world with no financial limitation I would travel with sculptures like the one we plan to bring to Black Rock City someday. I would research the reaction and interaction of art, people, music, etc. and project that I would find my hypothesis to be supported by my findings.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO MAKE MISTAKES
2) How do you remain positive and hopeful when either the ideas stop flowing, the work dries up, or the money stops coming in?

I really try to be an optimistic person but I must admit, I went through a dry-spell for nearly a year after I received my Bachelor’s in Studio Art.

At the time, I was ashamed and extremely disappointed in myself.

I am supposed to be a painter!
I am supposed to be selling my work!
I am supposed to… 
 
I am sure you are all familiar with a similar internal mantra, no?

But the fact of the matter was that I was uninspired, unmotivated, and painfully unsure of my next step. I needed a job but knew that selling my work was going to take more energy and devotion than I felt like I had at that point in time.

In fact, over the past couple years since graduating I have come to realize how little interest I have in selling my work at all! (More on this later.)

Luckily, I was not relying on my artwork before graduating as a means of income so not having that resource post-degree didn’t make much of a difference to me.

Just when I needed it most, I was given the opportunity to teach art to elementary school aged children. It got my creative juices flowing again because I had to train my mind to think about making art in a way I hadn’t in my entire life. For so long it had just flowed, and now I had to inspire students – some who didn’t have the same innate interest for mark-making, color, shape and light as I had as a child. More so, I had to inspire myself! My livelihood depended upon it!

I was forced into a new state of mind that wasn’t so concerned about the final product of what I drew or the concept behind it. I had been given a time-machine into the most creative sources on Earth – something that got lost along the way with all the schooling and the aging – the mind of a child!

Yes, my classes were about learning how to draw a certain objects and how to best use the mediums chosen for each project, but it became something so much more than that – we were playing! Creating from an intuitive source and letting the story write itself as we went along. If that wasn’t divine inspiration on learning to trust myself again, how to be okay with taking steps toward the next chapter of my life, I don’t know what is!

This approach not only brought joy to my students, but there was an upwelling of healing for my own tired heart as my students and I connected over common human emotion and the desire to leave our mark.
I realized that I had to reevaluate how I thought about my work.

To abandon old processes and concentrations so that I could allow myself to breathe. I had to give myself the freedom to make art that I might hate when I was done with it. It was absolutely necessary to allow myself to make mistakes again. To make in a manner of complete abandon the way the five-year-old version of myself had.

Now, if I find myself feeling unsatisfied with my work or feeling stuck I know I need to spend some time drawing with people half my age. Or, at least check in with my inner-child and get back to a place where I am not over thinking my work.

The mission of feeling financially secure in your artistic endeavors can be an equally daunting task. It’s hard not to get upset when you spent all that time working on a grant proposal and the funds are awarded to someone else.

My S.O. and I didn’t get the Burning Man grant by the way, but the project hasn’t been abandoned yet. There are other options available to us if we are willing to network, to spend more time setting up “kick starter” web pages and accounts, and if we refuse to lose sight of the purpose for our art.

Know that a lot of the time you have to meet up with the right people, who will become your support system for a specific project. Sometimes we just don’t know how to present it to the panel of judges and the whole “there’s always next year” thing starts to make a lot more sense. Other times it means we need to expand our audience.

Trial and error is just as important to us in building our reputation as an artist as it was when we were first learning to make a balanced composition.&

If at first you don’t succeed…

Well, you know the rest.


BE THE SOURCE OF YOUR OWN MOTIVATION
3) What is the greatest challenge you have faced as a creative person?

The greatest challenge I have faced as a creative person is two-fold.

1. Finding the confidence within myself necessary to pursue a career that others may have trouble understanding.
2. Coming to terms with the financial and emotional struggles I face because I have chosen to follow my passions instead of seeking out the most comfortable or lucrative career.

It is so easy to allow the opinions and seeming lack of support from the most important people in our lives (parents, friends, etc.) discourage us from listening to our hearts.

What I have discovered over the past year, during GRE exams, tears, graduate school applications, interviews around the country, financial planning, and yes… more tears… is that sometimes a loved one’s concerns over the steps you are taking in pursuit of your goals aren’t voiced because they don’t want you to be happy. It’s not that they don’t want you to succeed or don’t believe in your ability to meet your goals. Family and friends – we worry about each other. This is no mystery!

So, it is important to keep in mind that a lot of the time things that come across as unsupportive are said out of fear that you are taking a path that they know virtually nothing about… beyond the “starving artist” stereotype.

I implore you to follow your own arrow, and not let their words dissuade you from a calling.If it brings you bliss and you are willing to work for it – why not?


KNOW WHY YOU CREATE
4) How do you cope with creative anxiety and societal expectations?

This is something I must deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Sometimes it is extremely difficult for me to ignore the bits of advice given to me with all the best intentions and to truly trust that my inner-voice is guiding me in the right direction.

Because I am who I am, and have developed a profound interest in yoga – in the form of an Asana and Meditation Practice – I believe in an internal source of knowing.

I am creative, therefore I am meant to create…

But there is extreme trust there.

I have to believe that

      a) my gut instincts are valuable and valid
      b) I deserve to do what makes me happy.

My Practice now spills over into every aspect of my life and gives me the confidence I need to completely trust my decisions and myself.

In addition, I have taken a page from the book of my students and made the decision to embrace my creative spirit. It is, without question, one of the best things I have ever done for myself. It hasn’t been until the past six months that I have really wanted to start projects that have nothing to do with youth or school. It is what my desire, along with encouragement from my SO, to make interactive sculptures.

Because of the things pushing me to create, I don’t think of making a profit off of my ideas in terms of money. A successful piece would bring a sense of clarity to at least one person who aids in its construction, if not many.

MAKE FRIENDS WITH CHAOS
5) How do you deal with the inevitable uncertainty that accompanies a creative life?

I trust in the chaos of the world around me because I have no other choice – unless I want to become bitter and immobilized by my fears of the unknown.

Remember all those stereotypes and naysayers we mentioned earlier?

Well, they have their place and don’t come without some hint of truth.

Making a living as an artist is not easy work, but we wouldn’t have chosen this path if it were.

Tell me you never had to hide a smile when someone criticized you for wanting to be an artist, going on about how much you would struggle to make ends meet!

Admit it, you liked the idea of this challenge.

We wouldn’t want to create if we didn’t have questions about the world we live in. If we weren’t trying to figure it out.

We wouldn’t have these questions if we knew everything.
(Do you see where I am going with this?)

Without the uncertainty of the future there would be no need for creative thinking. No questions to be answered. No problems to solve.

When we allow ourselves to embrace the unknown we can actually be present in our lives, and in our work. Sometimes things are going to go well, and sometimes there are going to be bumps in the road.
It’s life and a reality someone in any profession could encounter.

If my intentions are good and I continue to push forward even when things get rough – if I refuse to quit dreaming – I can use the uncertainty of my future as motivation to use my creativity as a solution to any hardship I may face.

How Perseverance Helps Creativity Blossom

Guest Post Time!

Christi is the brilliant genius behind Novel Conclusions. A former English teacher and aspiring author who loves everything related to words and creativity, she currently writes and lives in Southern California. Go check out her blog at NovelConclusions.com - you know you want to. And now, let's get to today's post.

In Kadie’s post last Tuesday, she highlights a talk by Candy Chang where Candy reminds us that “life is brief and tender” and that we must decide what we will do with our lives. We must take action in order to create in our lives. Creativity, the art of creating, the act of innovating, requires decisive action and perseverance in keeping that momentum going. A spark of inspiration is great, but we have to fuel the fire to keep it blazing.

Being a master of your craft and of your own creativity requires perseverance, study, and figuring out what works for you. Anyone can have an idea, but you are the only person who can bring that idea to the world with your signature touch on it. The glory of art is in the execution. Van Gogh and Monet (and honestly, a ridiculous amount of people if you judge by the crazy amount on Google Images) have painted hay stack landscapes, but they look very different in the execution.

What Van Gogh and Monet have in common in this instance is that they painted prolifically to get things right. They painted everything around them over and over and over – and over again – until they couldn’t even look at hay stacks anymore. They persevered to get the lighting and the brush strokes and the color just so. Their creativity, the mastery of their craft, was fueled by persistently pushing forward and experimenting. They kept on working and trying new things when others would have stopped.

Author JK Rowling was famously rejected by 12 publishers before Bloomsbury accepted the Harry Potter manuscript, but she kept on pushing. Pierre-Auguste Renoir suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis, but he kept painting anyway and became one of the most prolific Impressionist painters of his era. Thomas Edison (who reminded us that "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration”) was one of the most prolific inventors in history; his creative innovations in electricity led to the technological advances that allow you to read this blog.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, he expands on this theory and gives example after example of individuals who became masters of their craft after putting in roughly 10,000 hours working on their specialty (check out this really cool detailed infographic about the 10,000 hour theory here). HOWEVER – big caveat coming up here, people – this does not take into account mindless repetition. If you play “Chopsticks” on the piano for 10,000 hours, you still won’t be Beethoven. So what does this take into account?

Perseverance in your craft means:

• Practicing areas of your craft that are (currently) outside your comfort zone
• Checking yourself (where am I at with this skill? How can I expand my knowledge of this aspect?)
• Always devouring ideas related to your field (like reading art-related blogs!)
• Working to create and innovate even when you want to be doing something else
• Not being afraid to fail – every failure is a stepping stone toward mastery

Perseverance can open up new avenues for your creativity. Sometimes when you push through, you find something you never expected. How are you taking action to create in your life? What have you created when you kept pushing? What else does perseverance do to support creativity that I didn’t mention?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below.



P.S. Check out this awesome TED talk on grit and how it impacts success:





Want to read more from Christi? Check out her blog at NovelConclusions.com.

Why Do You Make Art?

Over at The Greater Good, there is an amazing article featuring the responses of seven artists to the question, "Why do you make art?"

In a week talking about art asking questions, it's important that we also remember to ask questions of our art -- why we do it, what it means for us to be artists. These practicing artists, coming from all different backgrounds and influences, summed this up better than I ever could. Here were some of my favorite parts:

Gina Gibney's choreography. (Andrzej Olejniczak/Gina Gibney)

Gina Gibney:

I make art for a few reasons. In life, we experience so much fragmentation of thought and feeling. For me, creating art brings things back together.
For me, making work is almost like keeping a journal. Giving that to someone else—as a kind of gift through live performance—is the most meaningful aspect of my work.

A portrait by Judy Dater.

Judy Dater:

I like expressing emotions—to have others feel what it is I’m feeling when I’m photographing people. [...] I think photographing people is, for me, the best way to show somebody something about themselves—either the person I photograph or the person looking—that maybe they didn’t already know. [...] I feel like I’m attending to people when I’m photographing them.

 Pete Docter:

I make art primarily because I enjoy the process. It’s fun making things.
And I’m sure there is also that universal desire to connect with other people in some way, to tell them about myself or my experiences. What I really look for in a project is something that resonates with life as I see it, and speaks to our experiences as humans. That probably sounds pretty highfalutin’ coming from someone who makes cartoons, but I think all the directors at Pixar feel the same way. We want to entertain people, not only in the vacuous, escapist sense (though to be sure, there’s a lot of that in our movies too), but in a way that resonates with the audience as being truthful about life—some deeper emotional experience that they recognize in their own existence. On the surface, our films are about toys, monsters, fish, or robots; at a foundational level they’re about very universal things: our own struggles with mortality, loss, and defining who we are in the world.

An image from "The Problem of Possible Redemption 2003," staged at the 2004 Whitney Biennial in New York. (Harell Fletcher)

Harrell Fletcher:

By the time I got to graduate school, I was not so interested in making more stuff, and instead started to move into another direction, which these days is sometimes called “Social Practice.” [...] I think of it as the opposite of Studio Practice—making objects in isolation, to be shown and hopefully sold in a gallery context. Most of the art world operates with this Studio Practice approach. In Social Practice, there is more of an emphasis on ideas and actions than on objects; it can take place outside of art contexts, and there is often a collaborative or participatory aspect to the work. So back to the question why I make art. In my case, the projects that I do allow me to meet people I wouldn’t ordinarily meet, travel to places I wouldn’t normally go to, learn about subjects that I didn’t know I would be interested in, and sometimes even help people out in small ways that make me feel good. I like to say that what I’m after is to have an interesting life, and doing the work that I do as an artist helps me achieve that.

Kwame Dawes

Kwame Dawes:

I’m trying to capture in language the things that I see and feel, as a way of recording their beauty and power and terror, so that I can return to those things and relive them. In that way, I try to have some sense of control in a chaotic world.
I want to somehow communicate my sense of the world—that way of understanding, engaging, experiencing the world—to somebody else. I want them to be transported into the world that I have created with language.

James Sturm:

I like the question “Why Do You Make Art?” because it assumes what I do is art. A flattering assumption. [...] Whatever the reason, an inner compulsion exists and I continue to honor this internal imperative. If I didn’t, I would feel really horrible. I would be a broken man.

KRS-One:

I was born this way, born to make art, to make hip hop. And I think I’m just one of the people who had the courage to stay with my born identity. Hip hop keeps me true to myself, keeps me human. Hip hop is the opposite of technology. Hip hop is what the human body does: Breaking, DJing, graffiti writing. [...] The manipulation of technology is what humans do, that’s art.

Or take graffiti writing. Put a writing utensil in any kid’s hand at age two or three. They will not write on a paper like they’ll later be socialized to do, they will write on the walls. They’re just playing. That’s human.

Now go read the rest of the article, get inspired -- then come back and tell us why YOU make art!

The Role Of The Artist Is To Ask Questions

My first semester of art school I was immediately struck by the idea that I was quite possibly the most boring and bland person to ever exist.  My teachers held bold political view points and created art that reflected those opinions.  The other art students around me were passionate activists for one cause or another,  proudly creating art that portrayed their beliefs.  Everywhere around me people were making statements,  yet all I seemed to have was questions.

My teachers kept trying to encourage me to "find my voice", to find something to say, "You're an intelligent girl" they would explain, "surely you must have some opinions."  It was as if my lack of bold statements made me weak in their eyes, falling short of who a real artist should be.  But I had opinions.  I had strong beliefs as well.  I had also learned long ago that simply shouting your viewpoint in someone's face does little to change their mind and I was more interested in affecting people, than I was in spouting off my opinions to anyone who might be listening.  I just wasn't sure how to do that yet.

Now that I'm older and can look back on the situation I wonder if I wasn't going about the whole situation backwards.  Maybe instead of asking what needed to be said,  I should have been saying what needed to be asked.

Isn't that what art is really about, questions?  Doesn't it exist to challenge us and make us think?

If all we give are answers in our work, are we really letting the viewer engage in a conversation with us?  Are we really forcing them to step out of their views and understanding of a situation and look at it from a different angle?

Is simply shouting our opinions as loud as we can enough?  Or does this conversation need to start going both ways if we really want to affect change in our society?  Perhaps the question really is more important than the answer in the end as it is the question which holds the the catalyst for change.

Yesterday when Kate issued this weeks challenge she talked about some of the ways that artists have used their work to ask questions over the years.

As a bit more inspiration for you this week here's an example of a more direct approach by Candy Chang to this whole idea of using your work to ask questions, it's kind of amazing and only about 6min long:

Here's a tiny except from her talk for those who need a little bit of encouragement to push the play button and watch the video :)

"So this neglected space became a constructive one, and people's hopes and dreams made me laugh out loud, tear up, and they consoled me during my own tough times. It's about knowing you're not alone. It's about understanding our neighbors in new and enlightening ways. It's about making space for reflection and contemplation, and remembering what really matters most to us as we grow and change."

                                                             -Candy Chang

And since this week is all about asking questions, I will steal Candy's amazing question for you guys as well.  Make sure to leave us a comment and let us know your answer!  Good luck on your challenge this week!

BEFORE I DIE I WANT TO: __________________________

Who's Laughing Now?

You are not a joke.

What I'm pretty sure most non-creative
people think of when they hear
I'm an artist. © Mitch O'Connell

Let me just say that one more time, YOU are not a joke.

One of the biggest challenges that I face as an artist (and that I think plagues most creative people) is this constant feeling of our profession being somehow silly and having to justify the importance of what we do all the time.  We sometimes get it from our family, when they constantly ask us when we're going to grow up and get a "real job."  Sometimes we get it from our friends, or our community, when we're asked, "So what do you do for a living?" We respond, and then are met with, "Oh… do you actually make money doing that?" But a lot of times, I think it simply comes from us.

It comes from us because we are scared.  As a society we have this idea that anyone who is creative and successful has somehow "beaten the odds."  Which sets up a very interesting idea that successful creative lives are not something readily attainable to the average person and can only be achieved by a handful of magically blessed individuals.  This is not true.

Creative professions are just like any other job, they take hard work and dedication but most of all, you have to take yourself seriously.  In most other professions, there are people who do a company's marketing, PR, accounting, market forecasting, selling, buying, social networking, negotiating, developing, production… etc.  You only have you.

You have to learn how to wear and juggle all those roles, or hire people to help you with them.

Most creative people fail because they think they can sit around in their studio all day making art and that if they were really good they would simply be "discovered."  When they are not magically "discovered" they give up, thinking their work was crap and that they were a joke.  However, they weren't a joke at all and they might have been very talented, they simply forgot to show up for all the other job titles they held.  Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue at a major company if only the creative department showed up for work everyday and the CEO and accountants and PR guys and marketing dudes all just disappeared?  Yet that is how most creative people treat their lives, and when they fail, they think they simply weren't talented enough, not that it had anything to do with the fact they were missing their support team.

There is an old saying that is more true in the creative fields than anywhere else I think:  the fastest way to get a job doing what you love is acting like you already have a job doing that thing; eventually all your pretending will turn into reality.  This is ridiculously true.

What you do is not a joke.  Yes, it may seem at times like, "Who is ever going to want to pay money for this thing that I made?  I mean, I'm nobody…" These are just our insecurities talking.  What we do has value, what we do is important, and what we do is not, and never will be a joke.  Which means we need to give it the honor and respect that it deserves.  We need to get serious about ourselves, we need to get serious about our creative well being, and, most importantly, we need to get serious about our work.  Because when we start taking ourselves and our own work seriously, people take notice.  Stop living your creative life apologizing for what you do and start taking pride in it instead.

On that note, I will leave you with this video from Jackie Battenfield, author of "The Artists Guide: How To Make A Living Doing What You Love."  If you are really looking for a place to get started in understanding how to get serious about your creative career, I HIGHLY suggest picking up a copy of Jackie's book.  It is down to earth, easy to read and full of fantastic information for creative individuals.  Enjoy, be inspired, and remember, You are not a joke.  :)

Challenge #4: With A Little Help From Our Friends

From day one this website has been about keeping it real with other artists and creatives about the ups, the downs and all the in-betweens of living a creative life.  So let me just say straight out that last week was really rough for me emotionally.

I found myself feeling like everything I did was crap, like none of this “creative” stuff I do really matters and that nobody even cares that I do it at all. How could I have been foolish enough to think that anybody would really care about my work let alone want to pay me money for it!?  Basically I sat around having a pity party for myself wondering why I wasn't like a “normal” person, with a “normal” degree and a “normal” job where life would be so much much much less complicated.

But I don’t have to explain this to you guys, you know exactly what I mean I’m sure.  We’ve all been there at one time or another.

Sometimes in this creative life I lead I feel as if I am essentially drudging my way through some dark, murky and infinite abyss.  I keep flailing my arms about around me as I go, hoping to find some sort of hand rail, or wall, or defined pathway, to let me know I’m heading the right direction and not simply around in circles but all I ever seem to come up with is air.  So without any other recourse I simply keep plugging along in the darkness, hoping the direction I set out on will eventually get me to where I want to be and not into some bottomless pit, or off a cliff along the way.  Sounds enticing doesn’t it?

The beauty and the curse of a creative life is that it has no boundaries, it has no rules, it has no predecessors to simply follow along behind.  The course for everyone is their own, they get to make up their own rules, their own path and their own way to travel the distance to get to their goals.

I always find myself looking around at other creatives and thinking that their paths are so pretty, clearly labeled and that they look like they are traversing them so effortlessly.  While mine on the other hand resembles more of a swampland, combined with a mine field, and maybe a few ravenous wild zombies chasing me while I run around like a crazy person trying not to get blown up or drown in a pool of goo.

But that’s the thing, our paths never look as pretty to us as they do to others.  They never look as clear to us as others seem to perceive they are from the outside.  While we can get lost in a maze of our own making, others can look at our lives and see the beauty in the path we’ve followed.

I found myself thinking a lot about this while I was aimlessly wandering around my creative path, avoiding the ravenous zombies, this past week.

When I am lost in my head so deep that I can’t even see which way is up (like this past week), my friends are always there to offer that outside perspective and let me know which way is up again.  It’s so easy to loose track of where we are and how far we have come as creatives, that being given the gift of understanding how others see you from their perspective is one of the most amazing gifts that can be given to another artistic soul.

Creative people tend to be so insecure about their work and assume, no matter how many time you may tell them, that nobody likes what they do, or that nobody cares.  Hearing the contrary from another human being can be life altering.  It can literally mean the difference between someone throwing in the towel for good on their work or continuing to pursue their passions no matter the challenges they face.  A simple “Hey, I think what you do is amazing,” can literally be that important in the life of a creative person.

So on that note, the challenge I put to you this week is to encourage as many of your creative friends as possible!  Send them a hand written note, post a comment on their website, shoot them a message on Facebook, invite them to coffee, whatever, just let them know that you care and that you think they and their work are amazing and of great value.  You have no idea how much something that simple could change their life. If you can’t think of what to write or say, feel free to grab this weeks challenge badge to share with them!

Now, on the flip side of the coin, maybe YOU are the creative person who could really use this bit of encouragement in your life.  Maybe YOU need to hear that what you do matters, and that your work is of value and importance.  I learned a long time ago that there is nothing wrong with admitting that you need a little encouragement! (In fact, I think I pretty much told Kate point blank that I needed a pep talk last Monday at our weekly meeting) If that is the case, we have something special just for you!  Shoot us an e-mail at: theartabyss@gmail.com with your home mailing address and get ready to receive a little something special from us to you. (We promise your info will stay secure and that you won’t get on some weird mailing list.)  Make sure you get your address to us ASAP since we have a limited number of special somethings we can send out!

So there you have it lovely people, mission encourage a creative is officially a go!

If you’ve ever been creatively lost along your own path we’d love to hear about it! Drop us a line in the comment section below to share your story!

Banksy Strikes Again

It's Friday ladies and Gentlemen! Which means grab bag… and so for your weekend viewing pleasure here is a little bit of Banksy to bring a smile to your face and inspire you with your challenges over the weekend!



And if that wasn't enough for you here is a really fun Documentary on street art produced by Banksy called "Exit Through The Gift Shop" If you have Netflix you can watch it on instant play, but if you don't never fear the wonderful world of youtube has managed to post up the whole thing one way or another lol :):


Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

(There could be a little chunk missing in between these, but this it the closest I could find)

Part Six

Guerrilla Art 101

Ok people, here's the drill, this week we are talking about facing our fears and building community by bringing our work out into the open and straight to the people.  Who says we need a gallery show to be  artists, or a stage to be performers?  As creatives we are often insecure about sharing our work with others, but hiding it away from everyone for too long is often just as bad for us.  One way to get out into your community and start sharing your artwork is guerrilla art.  No, there are no gorillas involved in this process (although I suppose there could be hmmm…. intriguing….).  And no you are not required to do anything illegal.  To guide you through the magical land of guerrilla art, I've created a little guide for you of just a few ideas, ranging in intensity (and thereby also in illegality) so you can find the perfect fit for your creative personality type.  Hopefully this will help get you started on your challenge this week and lend you a bit of inspiration!


Land/Nature Art

Andy Goldsworthy

Nature art is probably the safest bet for anyone just wetting their feet in the world of Guerrilla art.  It's mostly legal (as long as you aren't being destructive or trespassing on private property), relatively risk free, and usually done with little to no audience present.  Done properly it is some of the most moving and inspiring work you will ever see.  For more inspiration check out the works of people like Andy Goldsworthy, Jim Denevan, Patrick Dougherty, and Richard Long.



Flash Mobs

You've probably already seen them on youtube everywhere, but if for some reason you've been living under a rock lately, a flash mob is really just a group of people all getting together at the same time, in the same place, to do some sort of performance piece in public together.  For the most part this is pretty legal and safe, however, depending on the location and type of performance peice you may need to ask for permission first.

By the way, who says flash mobs have to be singers or dancers?




Street Performances

I live about two hours from downtown Nashville TN and let me tell you, it takes guts (or a lot of booze) to grab your guitar, or your harmonica, or your Melodica (it's a thing I swear, I just saw a guy playing one on a corner last night honest to God) and stand on a street corner pouring out your music while people wander by... or stumble by.  For the most part this is also pretty legal and safe.

If you haven't already seen this video, you should watch it. Joshua Bell is one of the most talented violin players in the world and they put him in a subway station playing one of the most difficult pieces you can ever preform.  Read the amazing article all about it HERE.




Chalk Art

Chalk, it's not just for hopscotch people! Chalk is a fantastic medium for the more conservative guerrilla artist, you can still make a big statement, on the ground, on a wall, wherever, and if somebody hates it, it just washes off with water.  Most people are pretty cool about chalk art, but again be smart about where and what you a drawing.  If you draw a swastika in front of a synagogue, that's not going to go over so well.. just be smart people.

Guerilla Gardening

Here's where things are going to start to get fuzzy people.  Guerrilla Gardening is actually really fun and a really really low
key form of guerrilla art.  For the most part everyone is pretty excited about artists bringing a little beauty into the word by planting things.   Especially when you do it in an area that is really lacking in aesthetics or green stuff.  However, don't go around digging in grandma's prized flower bed if you are looking to stay under the radar ok?  For tons more info and inspiration check out www.guerrillagardening.org!

Yarn Bombing

Street Artist Jessie Hemmons

If you have a talent for knitting, crochet or just soft fuzzy yarn in general this might be your thing.  Yarn bombing (or knit graffiti as it's sometimes known) can be political, it can be heartwarming or it can be just plain funny.  You can do anything from show a sense of warmth and care for your environment to making large political statements, all with yarn.  Now if we get down to it, this isn't strictly legal since technically you are defacing public property.  However, for the most part people rarely care and if they do the project is usually so easily removable that people calm down pretty quick and get over it.  Just be warned ok?  If you want some inspiration, THIS SITE has some really really great stuff documenting Philadelphia's knitted street art.



Hard Core Guerrilla Art

Guerilla Art By Banksy

Alright, now that we've covered all the mostly legalish forms of guerrilla art, here are some example of what can be done by the more bold among us.  Most of these are going to be considered defacing public property, and seen no different by the law than say plain old gang related graffiti, so be warned and participate at your own risk.  The master of this genre of art is probably a dude named Banksy.  If you haven't heard of him go do a google search right now, seriously.  However, there are thousands of amazing street artists in the world today doing some really amazing work.  Try checking out www.streetartutopia.com for some great inspiration!

If you want to hear more about just how much impact this kind of art can have on the world and society take a listen to this TED video!
 

Alright, so there you have it, everything you need to know to decide what kind of Guerilla Artist you are!

Did we miss anyone that is your all time favorite street artist?  If so, drop us a line in the comment section and let us know who inspires you and your art!