Creative Courage (and Survey results!)
Do you consider yourself an artist, an artisan, or a hobbyist when it comes to your creative work? You might remember a similar question being asked on the recent survey we sent out (and for the curious, I’ll reveal some of the results at the end of this post.) Does the question make you stop and consider how you see yourself or maybe what those terms actually mean? Or did you answer that question without hesitation? Personally, I really dislike labels, but they are necessary for us to group and categorize the many people we meet and learn about. Our brains simply can’t file everybody in their own little space in our heads. It would be like throwing all your beads in a bucket and then hoping you can find the one you want when you need it. So, we have labels for others as well as ourselves. The label for ourselves gives us a way to identify our “tribe” – those people that approach their life or work in a similar fashion or think or see the world in a similar way.
Of course, to group ourselves with others we have to have a common definition, but definitions related to creative and skilled practices can be so extremely vague and wide ranging. This is, in part, due to the history of the concept of art and artists themselves. Did you know that the idea of an artist as a respected individual with skill and expressive intention was not a solidified concept until the early 19th century? Early on, among the ancient Greeks for instance, people who created in what we now think of as the fine arts, such as sculpture and painting, were often thought of as lowly craftspeople, not much better than slaves. The word “artist” didn’t even exist.
Even after the word “artist” came into use in various parts of the world (circa 1507), it only helped to define those crafters that were highly skilled. That which was called art was not produced as a product of self-expression but was largely created in the service of organized religion or government, quite frequently as a kind of propaganda. Art as a form of expression, an extension of the creator’s unique view of the world, and created for its own sake, was not a well-formed concept until early in the 19th century. That’s a mere 200 years ago! How crazy is that?
Nowadays, we play with the idea about what makes one an artist. I am all for including the requirement that it is an act of unique and intentional personal expression but, as most people proclaim, it’s really up to the individual as to whether they want to call himself an artist or not. However, I don’t think one has to have a certain level of skill or experience, they don’t have to sell their work, or have the value of what they do be confirmed by others. When it comes down to it, I think the only thing that matters is that an artist is willing to put a bit of themselves out into the world, bare their soul some, and share themselves with others.
Because art involves a bit of personal vulnerability, it does take an immense amount of bravery to keep producing, growing, and discovering. Even if you don’t show your work to others, isn’t it a tiny bit scary to sit down and work on something new, not knowing if you’ll create something you find successful? We don’t like to fail, even when we are the only ones judging it, but trying (and failing sometimes, maybe a lot of the time) is the only way we can get to the point of creating something truly satisfying and accomplished.
But even then, even when we create the most magnificent thing we can imagine, we will want to keep at it, to try something new even if just to tweak our best successes, and that takes more brave exploration. I think that being an artist is, in large part, about constantly striving, and regularly failing, but calling up the courage to keep trying regardless.
Why do we put ourselves through such torture though? Because when we create something wonderful, that is uniquely our own, there is just no better feeling in all the world. And you know, those times you don’t succeed are really what makes the successes so intensely satisfying. We just can’t fully appreciate the highs without experiencing the lows. It’s the contrast between them that makes it feel so good when we get it right!
So, this week I wanted to share with you the work of just a few people who are really putting themselves out there, looking honestly at themselves and their work, even though it’s scary. Being brave doesn’t mean that you’re not afraid. Being brave means you do it even though you are afraid.
Brave Artistic Souls
There are several Facebook groups that invite and encourage crafters and artists to share their work and ask questions. It was in one of these groups that I saw this beaded pendant from Amy Jamroz posted with a note about this being part of her quest to create work that she really enjoys making. She was very honest about her fear of moving forward with these new changes. It’s hard enough to try pushing yourself in a new direction but it has to be more nerve-wracking to share it.
First, I want to applaud Amy for posting in the “Polymer Clay Success” group about her journey and her fears. Just that inclination shows a tremendous amount of dedication to her work and herself as an artist. You can definitely see the joy and confidence in what she’s doing now in the color choices and the skills she’s gained with her dedicated focus.
Israel’s Yudit Yitzhaki was one of those brave folks who sent me links of her work directly. I do get this a lot but, to be honest, most of the time, it is from people quite new to the material, people who really need to invest in their work a bit more by putting time into honing their skills and finding their own beautiful and unique voice. It can be quite a long and bumpy road, and I do know how enthusiastic one can be when the polymer addiction first sets it, but we all need to take the time and invest in our creative self before putting new work out there. Remember … the internet never forgets so you want what you post, or ask others to share, to be something you believe you will be happy to have others see a decade from now. Don’t rush it. The thing is, once someone’s skill and voice have come into their own, chances are that others, upon recognizing a unique and passionate voice, will do the sharing and promoting of the work for them.
The work Yudit sent me was obviously already there but I think coming from a non-English speaking country, it was harder to break into the very active English sector of our community. So, sending her work to me and others was a good idea. She has such brave and bright sense of color and her obvious love of the world around her where she lives in Israel, just jumps from the work.
Back before EvaMarie Törnström made such a tremendous breakthrough in her art, I had an email conversation with her about her Malta horse, seen below, which I also blogged about in January of 2015. My then assistant, Paula Gilbert, championed her work for consideration for the magazine but I was hesitant to do so, not because I didn’t think it had merit but because I felt like her previous work was not quite there but the Malta horse was amazing and I wanted to hold out a bit and see where she was going with that.
I wrote her to express my thoughts and yes, she was thinking about heading in a new and exciting direction and within a year she came out with some of the most expressive animals sculptures I’d ever seen. I could tell from our email conversation that she had been a little uncertain about the new direction although I wasn’t sure why, but she did the work and really let her own voice shine and the response to her new sculptures was so very enthusiastic. I am so glad that I listened to my gut and waited to feature her a year later when we could show her very emotive horse sculptures, like the piece this post opened up with, that she is so well known for now.
Now, is there something you have been hesitant to try or a new direction in your work you’ve wanted to explore or maybe a change in your art business that gets you excited? If so, why haven’t you started down that road?
Sometimes we are fearful for good reason and that emotion always warrants a bit of consideration before jumping in but if you feel driven to do it, don’t let the fear hold you back. We have to take some risks to make progress. I find it helps to ask, “What is the worse that can happen?” Usually the worst thing that can happen is that you temporarily fail but can readily get up and try again. You’ll learn more through your failures than through your successes so be open to the learning and go for it!
Thanks for the Survey!
Thank you to everyone that completed our Reader’s surveys. I LOVE to hear what you have to say. Nearly 400 people responded, and a lot of you left custom suggestions which I am still going through, so I’ll need more time for that. However, there were a few interesting results. So, here is a rundown for those of you who are into statistics or are curious about your fellow readers here.
I have had the sneaking suspicion for a while that my readership was no longer just polymer artists and sure enough, 1 out of every 4 readers that answered the survey did NOT identify polymer as their primary medium and half of those folks didn’t even consider polymer as their second medium. That was a surprise but a happy one for me as I do hope what I write, here especially, appeals to a broad range of crafters.
Also surprising was that only 7% of survey respondents said they work exclusively with polymer while the majority worked in a mix of polymer plus another medium, most commonly beads, mixed media, and metal. And the most surprising statistic, for me, was that only 58% identified jewelry as their primary art form. I thought it’d be a lot more! Tons of readers said they worked primarily in home décor, wall art, and sculpture. So, okay … I seem to be speaking to a wide range of artists and crafters here and I am sure glad to do so.
Remember the opening question of this post …. Well, 55% of survey respondents identified as artists, either part-time or professional, which I was glad to see since I think in terms of what artists would want or need when I write these blogs. The vast majority of the other 45% said they were avid hobbyists and much of the design and aesthetic talk is good for those folks as well!
When it came to content, I was rather surprised but encouraged that only about 1/3 of the survey folks thought project tutorials were a must have in what I post and publish. That has not been the case in past surveys where half the respondents were clamoring for them. Is there a shift in the community or in my readership? It’s hard to say.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I push for people to find their own voice and although project tutorials are a fabulous way to hone one’s skills, it really looks like you all are clamoring to learn more about design, with a good 40% saying that’s a “Must Have”, another 40% saying they looked forward to that kind of thing and absolutely no one saying they didn’t want that kind of information. That was the only category of content preferences that didn’t have anyone say they weren’t interested in it and it had the highest level of interest although learning about other mediums came in a close second. I just love where your focus is, all you beautiful readers!
The only other thing I thought was of particular interest was how many people pay for digital media such as blogs, Patreon accounts, and membership sites. It looks like almost ¼ of you do, even with all the free stuff out there. That is wonderfully supportive of your fellow artists who put together digital online content. It looks like that goes up to about half if you if we include downloadable PDFs and videos. Of course, the majority of people put their money into books and magazines. After all, this is the readership of Tenth Muse publishing but it good to know a lot of you are open to other options that can monetarily support what I do!
I doubt it would be a surprise to you all to hear that over 85% of the folks on the survey access publications and online sources primarily to improve their skills. So, no matter what I do, I will endeavor to help you do that, but I am really going to have to think on what these results mean and how I can help you all get the content you need and want.
As for the drawing winner … Congrats to Judy Santini who is $50 richer! And tons of people are richer in information for taking advantage of the 15% off coupon! If you answered the survey but didn’t get to use that discount yet, give me a few days to get a mailing list together to resend you the code and a reminder.
On the Road
On that note, I need to ask for a pardon as next week’s blog will not be quite the same as I have been doing. Getting internet access during all this traveling, as well as free time while visiting family and taking care of other business, has been trying. I will get you something next week but as you see in this one, there’s not as many examples and I don’t know what I will be able to pull off this coming week as I help my sister get ready for her wedding. On top of that, Christi Friesen and Debbie Crothers will drop into Denver in the midst of that so free moments will be spent sneaking off to commune with my like minding polymer pals. But if you are in Denver next weekend, look into the classes Debbie is teaching at the Great Create. I will try and drop by on Saturday to say hello there as well and maybe I can at least share some photos with you next weekend.
Ok, my design minded, skill honing, courageous creatives. Go forth and conquers those fears and create bravely this week!
