We all want to felt seen and heard. Sometimes it is very difficult to speak up, to stand your ground, to speak out for what you believe in.
As artists we often hold a mirror to society, bearing witness to the events unfolding around us. To hold up a mirror to ourselves is harder and takes courage and practice.
When I was a newspaper journalist It was drilled into me to listen and report on other peoples’ stories, never to ‘editorialise’ or share my own opinions. Yet this is what artists are required to do, to embrace all of who they are, what they believe in and what they witness.
Feeling validated as an artist is often a slow process of self acceptance. If you put your art in an exhibition, you feel validated when people are complimentary or buy your work. When you suffer rejections time and time again for exhibition submissions, it is hard to believe that your art is worthy.
Learning to separate your own self worth as a person, from your art on the wall is the first step to self acceptance.
Earlier this week I ran a workshop where participants were asked to draw a 5 minute self portrait and tape it to the wall. They wrote about their personal strengths, their art techniques and big goals on sticky notes that they put on the wall next to their portraits. At the end of the day each participant picked another person’s portrait and introduced that person to the group, as if they were introducing them at an art exhibition.
This validation exercise was incredibly powerful. To see your picture, to hear someone talking about how you create art and what your dreams are for the future is like having a magic mirror reflecting back at you.
When we stand next to our work on a wall or at an exhibition, we are showing off our creation, a piece of our soul, a piece we are proud to share with the world. We have done our best, now it is up to the art to speak for itself. Whether it sells or not, whether people like it or not is immaterial. WE have had the courage to Dare to Create and we are, like our art, masterpieces in process.
Self portrait by artist Debra Patterson at the Success Your Way workshop