Everything is Wonderful.
I've been hearing from a lot of artist and writer friends that everything is terrible. And oh, boy - there's been plenty of good reasons to come to that conclusion. Galleries have closed, designers seem to have fled to their stylish hills - the art market in general dried up drier than a raisinet left under a sofa cushion for a couple of years.
And the writing world has had its own share of difficulties. Publishing house tightened their belts until their faces turned blue. Editors were fired in heartbreaking droves. Writers that had had nice little careers with successful books to their name now found themselves on the outside looking in.
It's enough to make you want to lay on the floor like a dead thing.
Worse, it's enough to make you wonder if your creative services are no longer needed. It can even be enough to have you question whether maybe, perhaps - you may have even wasted your life.
STOP THINKING THAT.
We are creative people. We get ideas all the time about what to draw and what to write about. At various points in our lives we need to come up with ideas how to not only weather a lull in business but how to make it work for you in the long run.
You are not just good at only one thing. Have you stuck to one medium for a very long time? Have you written for mostly one market all these years? Maybe it's time to shake things up a bit. And here's the deal - first attempts at these new endeavors may not be successful. They might even suck. That's because you're learning, right? Dare to suck.
Take a class or a workshop. A learning brain is a younger brain. Play with words, eat paste.
Don't wait for things to come to you. Explore. Research. Travel outside the swirling little worried world inside your head. Don't just go around with your eyes and ears open, develop gigantic huge froggie eyes. Grow Dumbo ears - attractive!
Stop trying to win - for awhile. I asked my tennis coach yesterday for advice on how to pick up my game for next season. I had a rough spring, losing most of my matches - some by a hair - some by all out annihilation. He recommended some lessons to strengthen existing skills and to develop new ones. He suggested hit groups to go out and simply whack the ball a few thousand times. Pick up games were fine, as long as - I didn't try to win. Once you go into competitive mode, you naturally fall back on what you know rather than using what you're learning. That'll put you right back to square one as far as improvement.
I love how tennis is exactly like art and writing.
This week I received a commission for a piece of art similar to the one at the top of the post which was also a commission. The title is "Everything is Wonderful". If it were up to me I'd change it up a little bit, like where's the chocolate cake? Where's the wine? But a sunny day, dogs happily jumping around, flying kites? Not too shabby.
I guess if you focus on the "wonderful" than everything IS wonderful even if it's just for a few minutes. It's out there - really.
Now go eat paste.
And the writing world has had its own share of difficulties. Publishing house tightened their belts until their faces turned blue. Editors were fired in heartbreaking droves. Writers that had had nice little careers with successful books to their name now found themselves on the outside looking in.
It's enough to make you want to lay on the floor like a dead thing.
Worse, it's enough to make you wonder if your creative services are no longer needed. It can even be enough to have you question whether maybe, perhaps - you may have even wasted your life.
STOP THINKING THAT.
We are creative people. We get ideas all the time about what to draw and what to write about. At various points in our lives we need to come up with ideas how to not only weather a lull in business but how to make it work for you in the long run.
You are not just good at only one thing. Have you stuck to one medium for a very long time? Have you written for mostly one market all these years? Maybe it's time to shake things up a bit. And here's the deal - first attempts at these new endeavors may not be successful. They might even suck. That's because you're learning, right? Dare to suck.
Take a class or a workshop. A learning brain is a younger brain. Play with words, eat paste.
Don't wait for things to come to you. Explore. Research. Travel outside the swirling little worried world inside your head. Don't just go around with your eyes and ears open, develop gigantic huge froggie eyes. Grow Dumbo ears - attractive!
Stop trying to win - for awhile. I asked my tennis coach yesterday for advice on how to pick up my game for next season. I had a rough spring, losing most of my matches - some by a hair - some by all out annihilation. He recommended some lessons to strengthen existing skills and to develop new ones. He suggested hit groups to go out and simply whack the ball a few thousand times. Pick up games were fine, as long as - I didn't try to win. Once you go into competitive mode, you naturally fall back on what you know rather than using what you're learning. That'll put you right back to square one as far as improvement.
I love how tennis is exactly like art and writing.
This week I received a commission for a piece of art similar to the one at the top of the post which was also a commission. The title is "Everything is Wonderful". If it were up to me I'd change it up a little bit, like where's the chocolate cake? Where's the wine? But a sunny day, dogs happily jumping around, flying kites? Not too shabby.
I guess if you focus on the "wonderful" than everything IS wonderful even if it's just for a few minutes. It's out there - really.
Now go eat paste.
