When it comes to being an artist? How important is it really? After all, shouldn’t being a good artist be enough? Or is it? What separates good artists from successful artists? Is it just that the successful artists get breaks? That they are in the right place at the right time? Is it that? Or is it something else? Do they get breaks because they have a certain mindset around their art and their why? Why they paint, why they are here, and why they do what they do?
Something to ponder.
I’ve done an experiment. For the past two weeks I have started dropping my fear around painting to sell, vs. painting to play. Which is MY why. It is why I paint. As a child, I never allowed myself to play. I felt as though as the oldest in the family, I had a certain responsibility to be….well…responsible. I never truly allowed myself to play just for playings sake.
But, during my experiment I have noticed that when I paint from my intuition, when I paint from that place of play, when I drop all the fear about painting “to sell”, I get phone calls, emails, and notices from galleries that paintings are selling.
It’s a fine line….a fine line between allowing a painting to come through me, and making a painting come through me. It’s a matter of connecting to my higher self, a matter of dropping all expectations, and just being in the moment of creation.
And how do I deal with the fear? I don’t run from it anymore. I treat it with kindness and look at it as it is a separate entity that lives inside of me. Kind of like a child that needs attention, and keeps bothering you until you finally pay attention to it, and then it runs off and plays quietly on its own.
I feel like I am finally stepping into myself. I know there will be backsliding, but, at least I have been in this place of peace and allowing. I journal about how it feels to be here. So that I can remember. And find my way back there easier.
So HOW important is mindset for an artist? You tell me. How important do YOU think it is? How can you incorporate mindset into your daily practice as an artist? Feel free to share….None of us is too old to learn something new.
Much love,
Paula
