As one artist to another, I wanted to go ahead and share this with you real quick.
It's a snippet from the No Pants Project blog, written by their self-proclaimed head troublemaker, Mike Shreeve.
"Here's the thing I wish someone had told me early on in my freelancing career. If I had any talent, I'd cross-stitch it onto a pillow. As a freelancer:
You're not an employee.
Your client is not your boss.
You are both the boss and the employee.
And your client is your customer.
The sooner you can get out of the Employee Mindset, the sooner you'll start succeeding as a freelancer."
Mike is a writer. He uses the word Freelancer, so you might not have recognized yourself in there, but you could substitute the word "artist" everywhere he says "freelancer" and it would still be 100% uncut truth.
This was an excerpt from #9 on a list of 10 Myths About Freelancing from the No Pants blog. You should check it out. If you liked this, you might want to check out this post from the Starving Artists Anonymous blog :"You might love sex, but that doesn't mean you would make a good prostitute." or the cost of #doingWhatYouLove. |
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| Back to the No Pants Project... I'm doing a new comic strip/blog post series for the No Pants Project website called Freelance Life. The new episode, #FreelancingFAIL Number One went live here. |
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| Abnormally, Inhumanely Sensitive: The Artist's Struggle. |
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"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive. To them … a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death."
This quote from Pearl S Buck, the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, nails down a reason that so many artists find it hard to succeed in business. One of the artist's greatest superpowers can also be their greatest weakness:
The power to generate emotion. To zero in on a mundane detail and turn it into a divine comedy, an epic drama, or a profound tragedy. The power to give weight and meaning to every moment. Great fortunes can be built on this ability, but like any power, it must be directed. Unbridled emotion has torn apart good relationships, even started wars.
It's important to understand the emotional power your art has if you're going to make a living from it.
It's also important to have tools to govern your own emotions, so you can maintain self control and good mental and emotional health.
Please respond to this message and let me know:
- What (if anything) are you struggling with emotionally, and/or
- What tools, tricks and techniques do you employ to keep a handle on your feelings.
- (Anything else you wanna talk to me about, fam)
As we continue to grow here at Starving Artists Anonymous, we want to help each other be better artists, and ultimately, better human beings. |
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| 6 Myths and 6 Tips on Marketing your Art-CanvasPop co-founder, Adrain Salamunovic, talks about how up-and-coming artists can market their works and still maintain their artistic integrity. |
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| Jewels. I'm always down to discuss and share content about ways artists can use their talents to pull themselves out of poverty and mediocrity. So get at me with questions and recommendations, and click here to add Starving Artists Anonymous to your reading habit. |
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That's all for now, fam. Feel free to respond with any comments, questions, concerns, or whatever
Peace, love, etc.
-Samax
StarvingArtistsAnonymous.com |
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