Now what?
So you've conquered your reticence, be it based in fear or whatever, to bare your creative soul. Now what?
If you already know how you want your creativity to manifest itself, good. I always knew I wanted to paint - I only needed someone to show me the basics. I found an informal group with a good, patient teacher and took oil painting lessons, off and on, depending on my finances, for almost two years. Those sessions changed my life. I remember warning my teacher upfront that I could not draw. (This is the first thing people say to me when I tell them I'm a painter.) She laughed like she'd heard that one before and said, "That's okay. I can teach you to paint." She was right.
When I decided to explore earning money from my art, I not only relied on feedback from objective sources, I submitted work to a lot of juried shows. At the point acceptances outnumbered rejections, I began approaching galleries. I got lucky: my first gallery found me. A representative of the gallery saw a couple of my paintings in a group show and contacted me soon after. I mistakenly imagined that acceptance at additional galleries was merely a matter of determining whether my work was a good fit, then following scrupulously the gallery's submission guidelines. You guessed it. I was wrong.
Most galleries won't respond to a submission if they're not interested, and some let you know that upfront. While I understand this, some feedback would be nice, of course. Fortunately, if even a couple of galleries are interested in your work, and you're able to establish a relationship with them, and particularly if they're able to sell some pieces, you're on your way towards establishing that track record Paul Dorrell alluded to.
On handling rejection, Mr. Dorrell warns that perseverance is the only thing that will allow you to "snap back" time after time. (Living the Artist's Life, p. 160.) He says,"You're the one who has to believe in yourself. You're the one who has to know whether your work is any good. If you do know this, and are certain of your destiny, then no amount of rejection should matter." It's not easy, this perseverance, which he readily acknowledges. And he knows it from experience: his first artistic love is writing novels.
So hand in there. Believe in yourself and your work. Persevere.
If you already know how you want your creativity to manifest itself, good. I always knew I wanted to paint - I only needed someone to show me the basics. I found an informal group with a good, patient teacher and took oil painting lessons, off and on, depending on my finances, for almost two years. Those sessions changed my life. I remember warning my teacher upfront that I could not draw. (This is the first thing people say to me when I tell them I'm a painter.) She laughed like she'd heard that one before and said, "That's okay. I can teach you to paint." She was right.
'Pool' (my third painting), oil on canvas, 36x48"
Many artists and designers have followed an indirect path to fulfilling their artistic destiny. Henri Matisse and Jean-Michel Frank, a French interior designer known for minimalist interiors and furniture, both attended law school.
Jean-Michel Frank interior, c. 1938
Vera Wang was a professional ice skater. Agatha Christie drew on her knowledge of pharmaceuticals, acquired while she was an apothecary's assistant, in the writing of several of her novels. Harrison Ford, famously, was working full time as a carpenter when he got his big break as Han Solo.
Sign up for lessons, watch YouTube videos, check out instruction books from the library - I've done it all while learning to paint and learning different techniques. I'm still very curious about several forms of visual expression, some of which I hope to incorporate into my work eventually. Never stop being curious, and never stop experimenting.
As I observed in a previous post, your motivation(s) for exploring your creative urges and developing your technique will probably change as you progress. Making a sale can change your perspective. So can rejection, so let's talk a little about that. And though I'm going to refer to my experience and galleries, the same principles apply to just about any form of artistic expression and the means of getting it seen or heard.
One of the first questions to ask yourself is whether your work is ready to submit to galleries, juried exhibitions, and the like. As Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers: The Story of Success; Little, Brown and Company, 2008) and others have posited, do we really have to put in 10,000 hours on our craft before we can be considered good at it?
In his invaluable book (I recommend it highly), Living the Artist's Life (Hillstead Publishing, 2012), Paul Dorrell answers the question, "How will you know when you're ready to show publicly?" like so:
"By this I don't mean showing in a gallery, but in public venues, since before most galleries will consider your work, they'll want to know where you've exhibited. But before you begin that process, you may want to ask yourself whether you've realistically evaluated your work . . .. To do this, ask a few qualified critics to give you feedback. And please note, by critic, I mean someone who isn't in love with you, isn't a relative, and doesn't owe you money. Rely on people who will be honest, who have a good eye, and [who have] appropriate sophistication for what you do."
When I decided to explore earning money from my art, I not only relied on feedback from objective sources, I submitted work to a lot of juried shows. At the point acceptances outnumbered rejections, I began approaching galleries. I got lucky: my first gallery found me. A representative of the gallery saw a couple of my paintings in a group show and contacted me soon after. I mistakenly imagined that acceptance at additional galleries was merely a matter of determining whether my work was a good fit, then following scrupulously the gallery's submission guidelines. You guessed it. I was wrong.
Most galleries won't respond to a submission if they're not interested, and some let you know that upfront. While I understand this, some feedback would be nice, of course. Fortunately, if even a couple of galleries are interested in your work, and you're able to establish a relationship with them, and particularly if they're able to sell some pieces, you're on your way towards establishing that track record Paul Dorrell alluded to.
On handling rejection, Mr. Dorrell warns that perseverance is the only thing that will allow you to "snap back" time after time. (Living the Artist's Life, p. 160.) He says,"You're the one who has to believe in yourself. You're the one who has to know whether your work is any good. If you do know this, and are certain of your destiny, then no amount of rejection should matter." It's not easy, this perseverance, which he readily acknowledges. And he knows it from experience: his first artistic love is writing novels.
So hand in there. Believe in yourself and your work. Persevere.
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