Eventually, You Get 'There'

Since starting to paint more seriously in 2018 I have, like so many artists, stewed about the value of spending time and money making art that often gets stuffed into a closet. I couldn't put my 'self' out there in the way that was required to sell my art. I didn't think it was good enough, interesting enough, important enough. I was worried about what people would think - the colleagues I used to work with, family, friends. I was plagued by feelings of inadequacy and incongruence. I was uncomfortable with busienss transactions.

I talk to a lot of artists in my classes who have those feelings too. But while we're making art together, we're all having a good time. We are getting to know each other and feeding our selves doing something we love to do. When that happens we start to forget the external concerns and hit our flow state.

I've experienced so many suprises through just following my heart. When you remain open, opportunities present themselves. I never intended to rekindle my interest in printmaking, but when I acquired a gelliplate, I was hooked. A few months later I bought a Hieneman Press off of Facebook marketplace. Prior to that, I had never intended to make monoprints on a gelli plate, or buy a press. Then people were curious about what I was doing, and I started showing them, inviting them to play along. Suddenly I felt everything fall into place. Feelings of inadequacy and of having to compete just melted away because I became fully engaged in a real pursuit - which, for me, was teaching.

This is what I hope to share with a lot of the people I teach who carry similar anxieties about the pursuit of art; that everything will fall into place if you remain open to the possibilites.. This is true in our art and in our lives.