I found bits of myself scattered among the pages of a book today. Like the aftermath of a collision between a drunken cyclist and a street vendors taco cart I recognize tiny flakes of my thought strewn throughout the author’s insightful text. This seemingly random juxtaposition of the cheese, meat and sauce that is my life has gained form … -ok, ok I mashed it together myself and made a little dog shaped out of taco meat.
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Art & Fear
Anyway, the book is great so far. Art & Fear. If you are an artist, or struggling to be an artist, and beset with the common fear that somehow you aren’t a ‘real’ artist, that your work isn’t good enough because it doesn’t look like [insert famous artist name here]’s work. Or if you fritter away your time over-planning and never doing your art, over-dreaming and never planning, or endlessly copying others styles, worrying, feeling inadequate, going back to school to become an accountant (not because you want to be one, but because you consider yourself a failure as an artist)…. if this is you then you may want to check out this book. I think it should be required reading for all creative types (or even the parents of creatives as I see my 10 year old son showing evidence of the same fears regarding his budding abilities).
I am not sure if I will ‘make it’ as an artist. I find it odd to even worry about things like that at almost 50 years of age. I am old enough that I felt confident in knowing where I was in the world. Now I find myself with a bit of a teenage identity crisis. This book is helping me refocus and define what it means to be an artist. It has helped me to begin exploring ‘my art’ instead of trying to emulate the styles of others in the hopes of finding acceptance.
Whether or not I am ultimately ’successful’, I feel that I have begun to shed some of the crushing burden of my own uncertainty and am excited to try to find my own work.
