It seems like wherever we are in our art making, we always want to be someplace better. Often, our art or our ability to make our art feels inadequate.
And it doesn’t feel so good. The real problem, however, is that this discontent sometimes never goes away. If we are not careful it can follow us around. It sits just out of sight with us in the studio when we are making our art and it even can follow us home if we let it.
Never feeling good enough is pervasive. Lots of people have this feeling.
It takes time to change this habitual way of thinking. But it is worth it if it even partially brings back the joy, and the ease of making your art again. If we can, then there exists the real possibility of bringing amazing, personal artwork into the world. This issue, this feeling of not being happy with where we are presently, needs some attention.
Here is how I like to reframe the narrative so that I can feel more content with where I am…
There is a very, very long road. It starts at the bottom of a valley and gradually winds its way up hills, and then eventually, it goes all the way to the very tip top of the mountain.
This pathway or road represents the entire creative journey you may take in your life. When you start exploring the possibility of making art you are in the very beginning. As one climbs this pathway the view becomes greater. The experience is heightened because it is more expansive in beauty and vistas the higher you go. You can see more and more. It can take years, decades, a lifetime even to climb this road.
The most fantastic thing is to be on the road. It doesn’t matter where you are on the road, only that you are on it. Some people are further up the road and others are further down the road. Your place on the road has more to do with time spent walking, not talent. Even though the road slowly gets better the further along the road you go, you don’t want to short change yourself by magically appearing someplace further up the road than where you are right now.
Each and every step forward is to be savored, because you will never get to move through this part of the road again. You get to do each part only once in your lifetime. You never get to go backwards. Only forward.
Here are just a few of the first steps possibly encountered along this path:
The first time you realize you can make art, the first time someone that matters loves what you have made, the first time it feels hard then incredibly easy, the first time you have a show or you give something you made away as a gift, the first time you teach someone something you have learned, the first time you get interviewed, your first solo show, and especially the unforgettable moment when for the first time, you know in your heart of hearts, that you are an artist
There are of course infinite steps you get to take but the most important thing to remember is that you don’t want to miss any of them.
The value of the next step you are about to take or discover is in part determined by the prior step.
So in this scenario, if you can imagine wherever you are on the road right now, then why would you feel you want to be anywhere else? The reason you are not at mile 50 is because you are only at mile 25. It has nothing to do with talent, lucky breaks, tailwinds, money etc.
What has helped me is to take all my dissatisfaction, my impatience and all the limiting negative thoughts about where I think I ought to be and re focus back to what I am making and where I am right now. Not surprisingly, this frees up a lot of energy, which now can be channeled back into your art.
So if you feel that sinking feeling of judgment or dissatisfaction creeping back in, take a breath and re look at what you are making right now. Take a chance, re commit to making it the best thing you have ever made so far. Savor this moment, this opportunity because it actually will never be here again in this certain way.
Do you sometimes feel dissatisfied too? What do you do about it?
25 Comments
Hi! I’m
Nicholas Wilton
the founder of Art2Life.
With over 20 years experience as a working artist and educator, I’ve developed a systematic approach that brings authenticity, spontaneity and joy back into the creative process.
Join me and artists from all over the world in our Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group or learn more here about Art2Life.
Wow, I needed this today. Thank you.
So true. I often have conversations with my inner critic… she can be so vicious, make me ruin good work…. so I tell her to leave the room… she’s not welcome here! I need to be here NOW. As you say, it’s all we’ve got!
Hi Nicholas. What a gracious post. Thank you. I have been painting for 64 years and looking for such a meditation. Meditation on my breath to interrupt my thinking is my main method of staying out of negative or egotistical thinking. Your post has added significantly to my meditation practice. My practice is ” pay attention to my breathing until a thought creeps in then become aware that I am thinking then go back to paying attentiin to my breath.” Again thanks. If it is ok with you i would like to forward your blogs to all my students. Please advise.
So good! I hope this applies when on my road I’m hopping back and forth between tiny paths of encaustic then oils then watercolor back to photography … In fact just wandering aimlessly along that road!
OMG YES! Thank you for that perfect analogy…I can truly picture myself on that road and there are always going to be roadblocks, bumps, cows in the road, traffic jams, potholes … but then comes the open highway and it’s time to hit the gas!
I love the analogy of being on a road and the only way is forward. Thank you for that! When I get down about where I am on my road, I think about where I’ve come from and realize that although my road isn’t always straight-forward, I am moving. As a graphic designer, I am blessed to create things in my work every day. I’m working to find balance in what I do for others, and what I do for myself in my painting. The gift I’ve given myself this year is to not schedule any shows or obligations for my art. This is giving me the breathing room that my work needs and I think the time to grow.
Hi Nicholas…..wonderful advice. Mine is for those a little more along that ‘road.’ I’m in a retirement facility. My studio is what was referred to as the master bedroom. I sleep in the living room, my hubby has the den. I’m at the end of having auctioned off many works, giving away or simply trashing whatever I couldn’t take with me. I couldn’t afford storage space. My resume is average to impressive. I’m in many noteworthy collections. Am I discouraged? YES!!! Have I stopped working NO!!! Six months ago, while on the phone with my daughter, I noticed a habit of mine……I doodle while talking/listening. When I got off the phone, I realized how much I simply loved what I referred to for years as doodling. I always claimed I couldn’t concentrate on what is being said to me unless I could doodle (conversations on the phone, listening to a professor lecturing, even a priest during a Sunday mass). Needless to say, my doodles are great, and most important, have brought me back to the studio……now only for myself….I’m actually ‘playing.’ Discovering you and your work has also (obviously) been a wonderful gift. Thank you…..and all your followers!!!
Thank you Nicholas.
Great analogy! I often feel dissatisfaction with my work, especially when I’m in the middle of it and feel stuck. Thanks to all of the great artists support in the A2L community I’ve really learned to just keep going because it’s all part of the process. When I can let go of pressuring myself to be or do something great, and just enjoy the moment… that is when the magic happens. I’m learning to just know this feeling will come and go and aside from being uncomfortable, it’s also the driving force in some ways. Thanks Nick!
Yes, I have to remind myself often that I have the chance to be on that road…it is fulfilling to be making art even if it has happened late in life and not as a career. It is a long and fulfilling search and it is preferable to be in this voyage rather than to be trying to avoir the void inside by shopping or looking at TV shows.
Thank you so very much for your inspiration and kindness.
I have just moved my art making from a small space at home to a studio with more space and no home distractions. It’s scary. Maybe I’m thinking that now I have to demonstrate “results” like sales or showings. How do I deal with this fear?
Every time I have allotted my self more space, I have to let it cure for a bit before I feel worthy of using it!
What do I do? A few things.. breathe, repeat my affirmations, take a walk outside and remind myself that happiness is experienced in the present moment, that’s a big one! Then I do something art-constructive like rewatch an interview by a favorite artist, sign up for an artist critique session, go to a new gallery, keep up with “morning pages” just to name a few.
Wise words. My question is: Why do we all have that negative voice whispering in our ear?? Why do we have to answer to that downputting that makes doing what we love so difficult sometimes?? Anyway – I look back and see the progress I’ve made which makes me feel excited for the progress yet to happen. I agree it has more to do with dedication that talent.
I have learned that the negative voice of the self-critic can never be completely banished. However, when we can readily recognize it, and see it for the saboteur it is, we can “manage it”. We can actually ask it/tell it to step aside for the hour or two or three we need to be free of it — whether that’s time in the studio, or on a stage, or we’re about to have an important conversation. With practice this gets easier and more freeing.
Thanks, really hit home.
I feel dissatisfaction in the fact that I have all of this work completed (and I know that it is good) but I am frozen in my lack of ability to get it out to galleries. Can you lead me in THAT direction?
Thanks for such positive advice Nicholas.
Reading the replies to your post it seems that most artists question their own work – maybe this is essential, if we are really happy with our work maybe we stop progressing. Like in your analogy of the path – if we really liked the place where we were we would never move on.
Thank you Nicholas , for your inspiring words ! I will have my first solo exposition in juli and I am 59 . It took me a lifetime to get there , being rejected by the art academie when I was in my twenties. But I persevered with every opportunity to come back to my art and am now a full time artist.
Thank you so much…I am a potter, I am on the path, and I am where I am. Thank you for the perspective.
Walking up the mountain and savoring each vista…what an effective way of looking at the process…thanks for the encouragement, Nickolas. When I’m feeling like that, I either go to the studio and just start something, or leave the studio when I start getting obsessed with some aspect. The more I paint using the principles, the stronger I feel that my pace gets to follow the trail to the summit.
I have been working so hard lately and my thinking became more and more negative cause I did not perform the way I wanted. I took a day off went to a birthday party. Had framed one of my pics I liked the most. I was totally overwashed by positive comments. Came home and saw my work in a different perspective. It was not where I wanted it to be yt but I have come a long way and it was good enough!!
Excellent strategy Nicholas, thank you! As an avid hiker, this analogy hits home.
When I get home after a long day at the other job, and I get frustrated when I see other friends and artist cohorts have retirement accounts or spouses that $upport them, I wonder if I’ll ever have the time/energy to continue my art. (I’m in my mid50s)
I focus in my daily meditation that I have my own story to tell. I tell myself other’s journeys may be more challenging than I realize from the surface. I am so grateful for my path to tell my unique story. Adding more flavor of a mountain hike sounds perfect for me!
Thank you for all you do for artists!
Hi Nicholas. I remind myself that I have to make “bad” things in order to get to the good ones. that mistakes are important because they are how I learn, as ugy as they feel. Sometimes when I put something away and return to it I like it a lot better. I am cabable of more compassion from a distance.