It seems to me that when we run into difficulty with a new medium we soon give up if there isn't any real progress. Progress can be found in the affirmation of others. It is important that those we go to with our creations are those who are safe. We don't go to those who are going to reject our early efforts, unless we are quite sure that is what we are looking for. There are benefits to criticism I suppose, though personally I have found very little to say for the benefits of criticism. In my experience it benefits us to find someone safe. Someone who will be the kind of person who will support a dream. If we have a dream, it is important to find those that will nurture it. If you are looking for critical appraisal of your work, be sure that your self-esteem is capable of handling it.And be sure that you know that person very well and that their motives are clear. You want an appraisal, not someone's opinion of how they feel about art. It is a very important distinction.
I have been drawing since I was about four. I'm almost sixty. When I look at my work I am critical. I spent about three months in art school. I left because: I was insecure. I didn't make friends easily. I was intimidated by those with lots of talent. And I got an attitude when I was given a negative evaluation. This is another reason to be sure of yourself when you approach someone who may be evaluating your life's work. What do you want from art? Is is just a passing fancy? Are you serious about it? Can you accept that where you are at this moment, that there are probably going to be those better than you? Art for me is not a job. It is about a tie to someone I respected a great deal and who got me through some tough, very tough times. She taught me that art was a way for me to feel feelings and to be happy. IT IS NOT ABOUT SUCCESS. It is about, at least for me, getting through some of the darkest periods of my life. It is about surviving in tough times and sticking with something. Everyone is different. This is my philosophy.
The crucial thing about launching your first project: Be sure you are going to succeed. Don't paint the Sistine Chapel. Do something very simple. Be proud of it. Maybe even frame it. Make sure,unless you like challenges where you may fail, to do something easy. This goes with any project. Anything in life. Start small, build on success, and don't give up. If you have early success you are more likely to try again. I was almost forty before I went to my dad and got his blessing to make a career in the arts. Sounds ridiculous perhaps. Forty years old one should be firmly established in their career. Not me. I was just beginning to try something I wanted all my life. I did not do failure well. I did not take big career risks. I had success in art but like many artists I had a boatload of problems that I needed to resolve first.
Rejection. As I write this I am thinking about those who are going to be critical of what I am doing. I am writing about feeling happy at reaching sixty and doing something you have been proud to call your life. It is not necessarily about art. It is about saying, I have been successful. If you want money the arts may not be the answer. If you want a problem-free life, art may not be the answer. Just find that thing that makes you feel a close connection to the Universe. Big U. You don't need to be religious. I'm not. But I believe in God. I know Something made me.Who this Something is I have no idea. I don't know why I am here. No idea. All I know is that Something loves me, has always watched out for me, and has always kept me alive. I have had broken bones, I've been divorced, I have been poor, I was a high-school drop out, and I was almost killed by someone who wanted to hurt me for a reason I do not understand. I am used to rejection. And in the arts you may get things that happen to you where you question the benevolence of God. But that is the price of growing old and sometimes doing things that sometimes fly in the face of logic. I lost a marriage when I realized my spiritual gifts were not the same as another person's gifts. It ended very badly and I sometimes regret my decision. Taking a risk may mean that someone will eventually not like you very much. You WILL be rejected. Vincent Van Gogh lost his mind and realized that this life he made for himself might not have been the best thing. He was, I believe, almost forty years old when he passed away. As an artist he was rejected all his life. I have had periods where I lost my sanity. Only that still voice inside me got me through it, and many, many caring people. People I did not know.They helped me for reasons that I am not sure I understand. M. Scott Peck wrote the "Road Less Traveled." When he was young he wrote that he chose to go into a psychiatric ward. It was a decision he made because he was being asked to make a decision that he could not live with. He eventually became an M.D. I decided that I would go into a psychiatric unit when I was twenty-seven. My mother had just died of cancer, my brother was extremely mentally ill, and I questioned my own sanity. It was one of the best things I ever did. I faced the thing that scared me the most at the time, going insane. I know rejection. Admitting that you struggle with fear to a person that has the power to change your life is terrifying. Especially when you have a family member with your worst fear.
I have written a lot. I struggle with what I've written. Yet when I got older I stopped being so afraid. There is a Zen saying: If you want to get over discouragement, encourage others. My wife may have cancer. It was a thing that put me in a psychiatric unit when I was twenty seven when my mother died of cancer. Life has a way of testing our resolve. You see, as I said earlier, art is about getting through difficult times. I became a writer of sorts when I battled depression, my fears. Writing is an art, drawing is an art, learning to get through life is somewhat of an art. Winston Churchill said: "Never give up. Never give up Never give up." The president of my college said that when I graduated when I was almost forty. I had been a high-school dropout. Yet, I went to college and graduated with a two year degree. . You can do anything. Never give
up. God bless. Dale
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