The Unvarnished Truth for Artists

Until very recently, there were a lot of voices in my head when I made art.My family. My friends. People I knew on the Internet. Gallery owners. Art buyers.Everyone in my head had an opinion and every single one of those opinions seemed more important than my own.That’s not the case anymore.I've come to realize that I have such a short time on this earth and whatever I have left, I want to spend it doing my best work; having my best possible life; being my best possible self.I can’t do that if I am listening to all those different voices, all talking at the same time (and mostly disagreeing with each other).“You should paint more realistically” (friend); “I liked it when you painted cows” (another friend); “your work needs to be contemporary” (imaginary gallery owner), “abstract is the way to go.” (teacher).The truth is there is absolutely NO POINT in any of us being artists unless we are going to speak our own version of the truth. Because art is about sharing your personal take on the world and adding that to the collective experience of all the artists who went before you. There is NO value in mimicking or acting or posturing– that just means you’re duplicating what’s already been done. The only way you can add anything to the world is by being yourself, because that’s never been done before.That means there is only room for one voice in your head, and that's yours. That means you might wind up painting wild, loose abstracts, or photorealistic paintings of clouds, or highly stylized dog portraits. You might find that you want to paint something that's hard to sell, or something that your hipster friends don't think is cool, or something that your friends and family don't understand. And then you might be tempted to back away ...to go back to what you know is accepted in whatever circles you move in.But I've come to see that if you mimic or posture or try to impress or 'borrow' other people’s ideas, you will not fool the people who matter – the buyers and the gallery owners and the influencers. Because the one thing they are looking for is "real" art, which means truthful, unique, honest work, and they can spot that a mile away.So, if you want to do your best work, you need to tune out all those other voices. Let them yammer away to each other - you don't have time to listen because you have work to do.