Allowing yourself to Fail

One of the main conditions that affect Artists is ( no, not carpal tunnel syndrome ) but “Fear of Failure”. This condition has debilitated more creative people than the swine flu, H1N1 and the common cold rolled up together each and every day. Why? It’s the obvious question and not easy to answer but I’ll give it a try.

A hundred years or so ago and for centuries before that all an artist was expected to do, once the decision was made that their talent was obvious to everyone, was to learn from a master artist the tricks of the trade. They would learn how to use the tools and practice with them until they were ready to become the master of their art. Then with the help of some local patrons and a church or two an artist could make his living doing what he did best. So what has changed? Well for one the world economy has made it so that living from your art is a crap shoot at best and has very little to do with whether or not you are the most talented or proficient. Secondly a little thing called the impressionism art movement changed the world of visual artists forever, not just because they gave us a licence to interpret the world we see into our own language but it is what happened as a result that started the problem. You see from that point on each artist wanted to explore expressing his or her self in a unique and different way. For the next one hundred years art as we knew it changed and morfed into many different and unique forms of personal expression with each artist taking it to the next level. It was because of this that pressure to be unique has been put on the shoulders of visual artist and I would surmise to say all other creative people as well.

Where once we had been satisfied to measure up to our peers now we have to outdo them and be different, unique and never been done before in the history of the world creative people. It is no wonder that we have an anxiety attack while working on our latest project. I have seen it over and over while teaching young and young to painting artists. They will sit and stare at the blank canvas afraid to start, and then they worry, fret and hesitate through the whole experience afraid to make a mistake. Even my constant assurance that if it doesn’t work out we can just cover it up and start again gives them no comfort. Sound a little familiar. It gets worse if you are really good at something then you have to add expectations to the formula of pressure.

So, what do you do? It is easy, so easy you will wish you had said it first; let yourself fail! Actually I hate the word “Fail” instead let’s try to look at it like this; no matter what happens you will produce a result and the result will be one you will either like or not; it is the way experimentation works – cause and effect. Each time you set out to paint, sculpt, write or perform give yourself permission to experiment and then decide that based on the result if this way works, if it does then go with that for a while, if not then you know you need to adjust things a bit. We are by nature experimenters, so don’t try to change your nature embrace it!

Sandra Taylor Hedges

Fear of Success

The one thing that can stop you in your Art career faster than fear of failure is the flip side of the coin “The Fear of Success”. Most of us would poo hoo such a creature but the truth is that more often than not this is the fear that stops the most talented among us. Fear of Failure is just a matter of building up your self esteem and confidence but Fear of Success is a more difficult monster to tame. Often when someone is about a centimetre from reaching their goals they will start to self destruct. The closer you are to the top of your craft the bigger the mess as the destruct button is hit.

We have seen it time and again with Actors, Musicians and Singers who have so much potential and are recognized as the next great one in their craft only to see them throw it all away by participating in self destructive behaviour and then they are yesterday’s news. On a smaller scale some of us do the same thing just when we think our momentum is on the way up we start to behave in uncharacteristic ways for example our usual punctuality changes to forgetting appointments, important ones or finding reasons why we need to cancel them altogether. Commission work sits undone in a corner with the deadline come and gone.

Why do we do it? The reason is probably easily explained by psychologists but the short answer is we are afraid to have to keep up the momentum. Once you are a success now everyone will expect you to keep it up. You will be expected to always produce amazing songs; your voice has to always be perfect pitch; your artwork must always win awards, you get the picture. This is a lot of pressure to put on yourself, of course your fan base doesn’t help and adds pressure to the mix but you must be the one to recognize what is happening before you lose all the ground you have made in your career.

So what can you do? All I can do is tell you what works for me when I see the signs of Fear of Success. I remind myself that I am not a machine. I am just a human being with ups and downs and I need to trust my years of experience and training and it’s OK to not be perfect. Then I make a point of telling my friends and even my students, which they are happy to hear because they want to know that everyone will have a bad day.

I know in this case I have over simplified the problem but it is important to recognize that this can happen and it may have already happened to you and if it does you may need to seek out the help of a qualified therapist or the help of a good friend who you can trust.

I will leave you with this one last thought,

“Whether you believe you will be successful or whether you believe you won’t you will always be right” Henry Ford

You are the only one that can control your future so make it a good one.

Sandra Taylor Hedges

Without a Vision the Artist will perish

A very wise man once said that “Where there is no vision, the people will perish” Proverbs 29:18; very simply put you need a goal. Why is goal setting so important? The short answer is without a goal you have no way of determining whether or not you have moved yourself forward. In my Art classes and lectures on Business I always ask the group to set a goal for themselves around the class.

The goal must fit some of the following criteria:

1. It must be able to be accomplished in the time allowed; there is no point in setting to lofty a goal for a short term project when only days or hours are available to dedicate to it. Certainly there is nothing wrong with setting long term goals just so long as you see them as such and set a series of short term goals to get you from here to there.

2. It must be tangible and measurable; do not set the goal of being rich some day as your goal after all my idea of rich may not be yours. Instead if you want to earn a $100,000.00 a year, month or per appearance then make that your goal. If you want to play at certain clubs or show in a particular Art Gallery then state it. Do not be afraid to aim high.

3. It must move you forward; always look ahead to the next level or best venue. If you want to perfect a particular talent do it only if it will move your work forward toward your goals. Don’t set a goal of perfecting abstract painting if your goal is to be the next best thing to Robert Bateman. Instead set goals that will move you toward the style of Art, Music, Acting and Dance you want to be recognized for.

So now we understand about setting goals what exactly will those goals look like? The time honored way to get a visual of your short and long term goals is to make a Vision Board. This can be done with Foamcore Board, magazines, scissors and glue or now with the magic of computers we can set it up with any document maker, save it as a PDF and make it wall paper. Have the Vision Board show all the things you wish to accomplish while you are building your career both easily attainable and those that may seem “Pie in the Sky” to others. Keep this Vision in a place you will see it everyday and remind yourself daily that this is your Dream and you will see it come true.

The flip side of this is that without the Vision and the goal setting you are not focused enough to take yourself there. There is no magic Fairy Godmother; no Genii in a bottle; no amount of wishing and hoping that will get you there and soon the dream will die. This is sad but true. The good news is as soon as you realize the power of having a Vision and Goals you can be well on your way to success, a little late but better late than never.

As a footnote, hang out with other Visionary Goal seekers they will help inspire you and uplift you.

Talent Verses Ability

In the world there seems to be a magic dividing line between the Artist and the average person. The average person believes that talent is a thing that you are born with and you either have it or you don’t.

The problem with Talent is this; it is one part ability, one part practice and two parts focused drive. The average person on the street may not understand this process and often put the Artist on a pedestal because of what is perceived as “God Given” talent. It has been my experience however that most humans have some measure of ability and with a little practice and a few pointers their ability evolves. The main difference between the average person and the “Artist” is the focused drive. An Artist is driven sometimes to the exclusion of all else and it is this, as the old saying goes, that “Divides the Men from the Boys” but isn’t this true of so many things? The driven Artist often has to be reminded to join the rest of the world once in a while. Without a doubt these individuals will always rise to the top in direct proportion to their ability to be driven and focused.

When I teach people painting and drawing it doesn’t take long before I see which ones are the ones with ability and the ones with talent. The talented artists will be focused, and involved in their projects while the ones with abilities will just coast along making due with the minimum effort. The final results will, on the surface look similar but when inspected a little deeper talent will win out. The talented person’s work always has that little bit of something extra that shines through

So now the question arises, can I move from just having ability to having talent? The answer happily is yes, but only if you can find inside yourself the focused drive required in order to push yourself to the next level. Sometimes that may just look like discipline to practice more in order to perfect difficult techniques or maybe it will be to get out there and look for representation. It may even be to invent a way of doing things that no one else has done before. Remember “Focused Drive” will give you the edge over ability alone every time, even if your competition has a greater level of ability than you do.

If you can’t find the drive inside you that’s alright too; just accept this about yourself and learn to enjoy the level you are at and take the pressure off yourself to be the best. Sadly I see individuals with ability abandon what they do completely because they are not as good as they think they could be. Creativity is the great balm for the soul, it helps to calm and restore our stressed out minds and that in itself makes it a pass time worth perusing, as long as you take it one day at a time.

Paucity Principal

The Paucity Principal

pau·ci·ty

noun /pôsitē  paucities, plural

Paucity means "the presence of something in small or insufficient quantities or amounts; scarcity." In our game, it's one of the main principles. Robert Genn

Artist, Robert Genn, is a big supporter of the power of paucity in an Artist’s work and I happen to agree with him and have been using it in my work for over 20 years, long before I knew there was a name for it. To put it into layman’s terms it would be the difference between a Robert Bateman painting and a Rembrandt drawing or a full orchestra playing and a simple flute. My mentor and friend Elaine Bigelow always referred to it as “Less is More, You don’t have to tell them everything”. For the main stream Art critiques and buyers this looks like unfinished work but I ask you when is a painting or anything creative finished? I say when the Artist say’s it is.

This concept is not popular with galleries and those that do not appreciate art but it is the way I chose to paint and I encourage you to try out the idea no matter what your artistic discipline. As an artist I can tell my story in the way I chose, just as an author tells their story in the fashion they do. Even an Author knows that too much description within a story can be worse than not enough as the viewer becomes bored; there is no room for them to use their imagination.

When we leave out some of the information that we see in reality we now add a 4^th dimension to the world, the dimension of “Perception of Content”. This powerful dimension allows the viewer or the listener to now become an active part in the art being created. When a line on a painting is left unfinished and is placed in a certain way the human eye will finish it, by doing this they are part of the process of painting, with out them it is incomplete. This is often used in stage production, when only key pieces of furniture or props are given to the actors to work with and the audience must imagine what the rest of the room would look like. The beauty of this process is the imaginary window the actor looks out can now become the viewer’s window at home and through this they are part of the performance.

We, the artist, are no longer required to fill in all the information. Rembrandt showed us in his simple line drawings that as long as you are true to your self and sensitive to your subject the viewer will know what you have drawn. Singing without the benefit of an orchestra can be as hauntingly beautiful as with. An actor holding his hand in a certain way and lifting it to their lips will allow you to believe the glass is there, half full or half empty. Which it is, is up to you.

Sandra Taylor Hedges

The Wall

Recently I was asked to do a commission painting of a seascape of a southern beach from a vacation snap that my client provided.  The first problem was the photo was not the best view I am sure of this section of beach, but what can you do.  So with some encouraging on my part and a few drawings I convinced them of the wisdom in adding a horizon line and some sky in the distance.  That along with a couple of other minor adjustments and we had a composition that I felt would work and they were excited about. 

This as I discovered was the least of my problems.  Getting excited about painting it was my real challenge.  When we as Creative people engage ourselves in the process we usually have a catalyst or idea that we are challenged by and when we are asked to do something that is old hat to us, we can hit “The Wall”. 

You know what “The Wall” is, it is that invisible barrier that comes up and keeps us from taking another step forward.  Runners experience “The Wall” often on long runs when suddenly even though up to this point everything was great it’s as if the air became thicker and their feet have sunk into mud and every muscle screams for them to stop.  Experienced runners know that this is the time to keep pushing because very shortly the energy will return to them and they get a renewed burst of strength.

It is the very same process for Artists we just need to recognize it and push forward.  When we are in our creative place time does not exist, we are focused and full of energy but when we are asked to do something (especially with a time limiting factor added in) that is not stimulating to our creative self we need to find ways to not hit “The Wall”.    How I got myself into the right space to work on the seascape was listen to sounds of the ocean from my computer, and look at lots of photos of beaches that were similar to the one I was going to paint.  When that didn’t do it for me anymore I took myself outside into the elements near the water to at least feel the energy of the water near by and feel like I was on location. 

For you depending on your discipline and the commission you are working on this may look very different, perhaps playing some music, taking a walk, going to a concert or play may be what you need to get yourself motivated.  The important thing is to not allow your Left Brain to start pulling up the list of things to do that takes you away from working on your commission. That tricky Left Brain is always trying to make us do practical things that it is good at and keeps it in control.  If this happens the next thing you know days and weeks have passed and now your customer is calling you asking when it will be ready and you are still stalling. 

So take it from the long distance runner, do what ever you can to push through “The Wall” because when you come out on the other side of it, you will be brilliant!!

Sandra Taylor Hedges