The Community Shop along with my fun haul
Week 10 of The Artist’s Way highlights the pitfalls that commonly ambush us on our creative path. How many times have you said to yourself: why bother, this other artist is doing way better than me? Or how about: I don’t have time to do any artwork with all of my work deadlines! These toxic patterns and ambushes can come in the form of competition, workaholism, creative drought, and fame. I personally resonated with the competition and fame aspects because they are heightened in this day and age with social media and that endless pressure to make content that “sells”. I’ll see many artists on social media who have huge success and I immediately get in that overwhelm and compare/despair state. It’s hard not to get in a despair spiral when there’s easy access to worldwide content nowadays online. I have to constantly remind myself that there is room for everyone in the creative world. Plus, no one is ever an overnight success. It takes time and consistency to build up to that definition of success.
The fame portion is all about generating content just for public approval. Instead of making something and thinking: how do I feel about this? it becomes more like: how will this look to others? There’s no easy way out of any creative pitfall, but you can’t go wrong with cutting down on endless social media scrolling. Spend that time going for a walk instead. Julia Cameron encourages writing through these pitfalls in our morning pages (writing 3 pages of stream of consciousness to start your day), and I can attest that she’s right. I’ve made many breakthroughs by writing my daily morning pages that get me out of funks and creative drought. Give morning pages a try if you haven’t!
This week’s artist date brought me to an artist community shop that I’ve been meaning to visit for a while. The Community Shop highlights local artisans by selling their work in a shared space. I didn’t realize how huge the store was and found myself getting lost in all of the beautiful art and learning more about the local artists. I came out with an amazing handmade clown rattle (I love clowns in some weird ironic way), a perfectly-sized black tourmaline necklace, and a gorgeous bright blue coaster. The staff were incredibly nice and helpful, I’ll definitely be back! Local artists are welcome to apply as a vendor, so I hope to one day sell my stickers and notecards there. I highly recommend spending a few minutes by checking out a new local store near you!