I titled the art below Watched Over. I made it and gave it to my grandfather before he passed. I think about that as so many changes have occurred for me and my husband and the rest of our family in the last few months.
Support your art rather than expect your art to support you....
I recently read a post from someone titled "Your Life is More Important Than Art." The individual was a poet and writer but ended up walking away from their art form for awhile in order to pull themselves together. There is a saying. Life is what happens while we are making other plans. I guess in the end, the person realized that indeed her life was more important than art, but having some form of art back in her life helped enrich it. I think also I read a comment someone else made about art. Someone had asked how would they make a living from their art? To that the reply was something like "rather than ask of your art to support you, you should do what you can to support your art." Art has a reason to be whether or not you can use it to pay the bills. The monetary value of art is not in and of itself the value factor of it. Perhaps therein lies the ministry of art? So many times we think we are wasting our time cause the price tag isn't huge if at all.
Imposter Syndrome....
I used to say when asked similar questions that I am an artist even if I had not sold one painting yet. One of the things we artists can find ourselves dealing with is a sense of being an imposter. We fear secretly that the value we see in our own art (and it is okay to see value in the things we do), is not seen as valued by others. Add to the art world the Christian and that brings on another value. In my personal summation of the history of the Church (as a whole) and the artist, it is my understanding that at some point the Church started viewing art as not a valuable asset or gift of the believer, not a "spiritual gift" to enhance the Kingdom of God helping to lead others to Jesus. A part of the schisms in history. At times I have felt that myself and occasionally wondered if the Lord was trying to take that away from me. These are my doubts, my fears which have shown themselves in nightmares in so many ways. Monsters in the dreams slowing me down, holding me back, running me off the road.
I am one of those artists who have decided I do not want to run all over creation to sell my art, even if it's something to be in the marketplace. I have tried it a few times and it was enough to cause me to feel like I certainly wasn't ready or that it was the right fit. If I do it again, it won't be in the venue I experienced.
Formal art classes?
Sometimes I think maybe if I had understood early on that my path was of art, I may have taken some formal art classes or tried to get some kind of degree. But I wasn't aware. I saw what I did still as just a hobby. I struggled to stay in school and when I was in school I didn't feel like I belonged there. In fact I often found myself browsing the arts and crafts section of the college library.
I have an AA in English after 15 years to get it and a BS in Management. It was supposed to be more than that, but the math scared me off. I think the goal at the time was to gain what knowledge I could to run my own business. At the same time I was building an informational site called Scrapbooking Ideas Inspired. I am sure those degrees have some worth, but they might have more if they were in the art field somehow. I am in an artist mentoring program now - paid the lifetime cost. Trying to be the thriving Christian artist instead of a struggling one. Lol.
A LIfeline.....
Art was a lifeline for me during my own dark night of the soul I experienced in 2014. I had sought and was receiving help for a year. It was out of that time I moved from someone who did the craft of scrapbooking to thinking of myself as a mixed media artist.
While it is ideal for an artist to have their own workspace, I only did for a time. Like I said, life happens while you are making other plans. The call of art to me has become so strong, I find a way to do it eventually even though I don't have the ideal space, if any space, to do it in right now. Just today, as of this writing, I spent a couple hours on the back patio creating something, just to create. I call it Jungle Abstract.
Since losing my day job that caused me fits trying to find time to do art, I find myself looking for work at home positions I hope will help support my art until the day comes my art will help support me. A lot of artists probably do have a day job while they make time for their art outside those hours.
Create a job or just create?
While I do believe there are creative people in my family, like most people, a creative life was not sought out, at least as a career choice or way of life. Someone once tried to discourage me from pursuing what they called a hobby as a career path. They said that I would come to hate it. I don't think they were right about that. But I would agree that there is much to learn in regard to making a business out of it. It is also an expensive hobby or can be.
The artist life - what is it like? For some people its a successful venture, especially on a personal level. For others, it is a dream we struggle towards and hopefully we do not give up. We worry that the people we think follow us are not getting tired of our struggles. We wonder if people do care? Art does not always begin at the beginning of our career life. Sometimes it is in the middle and just an invisible thread just there. Sometimes its near the last leg of life. Or at least at the last leg of the lives of those closest to us.
What is it really like? In the bigger picture it is a part of our lives, for our lives are more important than art. Creativity, the umbrella of the art page is in so much of our lives. Life itself is a creative, sometimes messy, piece of art. Make art and live art. Remember that the Creator watches over us.
