Get Support for You and Your Most Creative Self
“As artists, we get the experience of making something and the experience of sharing it. Sometimes people don’t like it, but you can’t control that. The part you can control is how you feel making it.” Ava DuVernay
Yes! And how often do we get in the way of our own authentic creation because we are worried about how our art will be received and perceived by others? Too often I would argue. Actually, I am not going to argue with you; I know it to be true. It was true for myself, and I see it with my clients. By the way, I am expanding the words, ‘artist’ and ‘art’ to include all people who are engaged in the creative process of making something and sharing it, which includes small business owners, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.
I have a background in Fine Art; I fell in love with printmaking. My professor at Middlebury College was David Bumbeck, a very accomplished artist who encouraged my artistic vision and exploration which by the way was totally different from his own-the measure of a truly gifted instructor. I continued to work on my art upon graduation but was not drawn to get an MFA or do the struggling artist thing in NYC with 6 roommates in a cramped and dirty apartment. So, I got a day job and told myself that I make art in my free time. A long story short, I began to spend less and less time on my art and more time on work and hanging out, eventually I let it go completely.
How could I let it go? This part of me that felt so good when I was in the studio creating, that loved collecting the images and found objects which would later serve as working materials or inspiration, the part of me that felt most alive when I was engaged with the world as an artist. Unfortunately, the flipside of all these positives was that I was concerned about whether or not people would like my art or what they would think of me-a wanna-be artist with a day job in retail.
The good news is that despite my best efforts to ignore my creative self, it kept creeping back into my daily life. Of course, now I encourage it and readily play with my creativity.
What happened? What changed? A few things:
-I got older and starting caring less about what people think.
-I got wiser and stopped seeing myself as these different parts and more as a whole.
-I found a community that would support me.
Depending on where you are in your journey, I would recommend that you find a community that supports you. Because it took me a long time to get older and wiser. I coach small business owners who are some of the most creative and daring people I know and I am building community one client at a time-join us. I would love to talk with you about how I could support your creativity, your business, your dreams.
In gratitude,
Kristan