Posts Tagged ‘possibility’

Part 1: The Myth of the Starving Artist

What’s worse: that our cultural mythology tells us that if you choose the path of being an artist, you won’t make enough money to live on? Or, that there are artists who actually perpetuate this myth by believing that making money with their art is somehow less noble, less worthy, than starving?

This is the paradox of the myth of the Starving Artist. I don’t know about you, but I’m frankly sick of it. I think it’s high time we busted through.

First, I want to reiterate a message that I am passionate about: Everyone is Creative. While not all Creatives are fine artists, all Artists are Creative. Remembering that we are all Creative, whether we are painters, poets, actors, musicians, teachers, coaches, accountants, engineers, scientists is extremely important to busting the myths which abound regarding Art and Creativity.

When we embrace everyone as Creative, it becomes more difficult to give in to feelings of separation or superiority around our creativity. It’s no longer necessary to believe that we have to hold ourselves to a different, more painful, standard.

Second, I want to address the fact that there are quite a large number of artists of all stripes who are doing their art AND not starving.

Real life example: My friends Chris and Victoria Jordan come to mind. When I met Chris & Victoria, they were both still working full-time jobs in the law industry. Chris was a lawyer and Victoria was a paralegal. Not typically jobs you would consider “creative” or “artistic”. (I imagine that there are some pretty creative lawyers out there, though!)

Shortly after I came to know them, they each quit their legal careers to pursue their creative and artistic passions. Now, this road was not necessarily an easy one and I am sure there were those among their peers who didn’t understand their choices. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were told: “you can’t make a living doing that”.

Less than 10 years after quitting his career as a lawyer, Chris Jordan has come into his own as an internationally renowned, talented and passionate photographer and environmentalist. His wife Victoria is a poet who assists Chris not only by writing poems which compliment his work, but also publishing in her own right. They are not starving. In fact, they are invited to travel all over the world because of their art.

What I have noticed about Chris and Victoria is that they love what they do, are passionate about it, but are practical enough in the application of their creativity to be able to make a living doing it.

Check out Chris Jordan’s work here: http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/#CF000313%2018×24

An example of Victoria Sloan-Jordan’s poetry can be found here: http://www.midwayjourney.com/2010/07/16/midway-journey-ii-kaleidoscope-a-poem-by-victoria-sloan-jordan/

What would become possible for your Creative self if you stopped believing that myth of the Starving Artist? Will you finally let yourself pursue your Creative Dream?

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Myth of the Starving Artist…

As any entrepreneur can tell you, running your own business can be a downright frightening thing at times. Times when you wonder whether you’ll be noticed or stand out from your competition. Times when you have to stand up in front of a group of strangers and try to explain what it is you offer – in a compelling enough way to attract clients or customers. Times when you hit the “publish” button on your blog or website and hope that what you’ve written hits its mark. Times when you wonder if you’ll be able to pay your bills, the rent and still have enough to buy groceries.

I’ve lived with fear a long time. It’s been such a close companion, for much of my life I didn’t even know it for what it was. I assumed it was normal to worry like crazy, feel anxious and berate oneself for failures. Most of us do it all the time, behaving as if we all should somehow magically be prepared for any possible contingency, every possible outcome. “What an idiot I am! Why didn’t I realize that was going to happen? I should have known! I should have seen the signs!!!”

Lately, I found myself worrying a lot about whether my business will succeed or fail. Am I doing everything I can to promote myself? Am I doing it right? Do I even know what I’m supposed to be doing? What if it doesn’t work? What if I can’t do it???

The questions were swimming around in my head, keeping me up at night and waking me up in a state of panic in the mornings. “I’ll be OK,” I told myself. “I have faith that it will work out; I’m in a learning curve, that’s all.” But no matter how much I tried to hush the panicky voices inside me, they only seemed to hang on tighter and get louder.

I finally sat down to confront them the other night. I wanted to truly understand why, no matter what I said or did, I still felt this anxiety. Finally, it hit me: what my fear needed to hear was confirmation that I have failed. I HAVE FAILED. I’m doing it even now. Oh, my. Wow. I am currently failing. My business success is not happening the way I wanted it to right now.  I’ve FAILED!!!!! Aaaarrrrggghhhhh!!!

And then I started laughing. Because as soon as I admitted to myself that I am failing, I have failed and I no doubt will continue to fail, I FELT BETTER. My anxiety lightened up a little. The problems I’m dealing with didn’t go away, but the panicky questions in my head – the constant stream of “what ifs?” – got quieter.

I’m still giggling a little as I write this. What a relief to remember that it’s OK to fail; in fact we do it all the time. How lovely to revel in failures and the lessons they can teach rather than shy away from them. Now that I’ve admitted to failing, I am open to possibility. Instead of the nagging “What if?” I can hear the exhilarating “What’s next?!”

Try it. Admit to your deepest fear. You can fail. It doesn’t have to be spectacular; it can just be. I wonder what will happen when you do.