Permission to Create

Dear Beautiful Art Friends,

I just finished reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I love the way she writes, I enjoy her sense of humor, and though the book was not what I expected, it sure hit home in many areas.  After reading it I felt I got permission to create my own art.

You see, I love to paint and create, but over the last three years, when I decided to sell my work online and become a full-time professional artist, I began to feel frustrated. Frustrated because I was not selling my art for what I felt it was truly worth (though other artists told me it takes time), and frustrated because I spent a lot of time on marketing the artwork and felt it took away from the time I could be painting instead.

At the end of last year I decided that after my featured show, which I just had in February, I was going to scale back on social media and marketing so I could paint more.  I have a lot of fans that like my abstract work and I had continued to paint abstract because I do like to sell my art, but in addition to painting abstract, I also want to do more realistic paintings and to experiment with different mediums and just savor the process.

In Gilbert's book she talks about art as a vocation, and how it doesn't have to be your career.  I don't know where I got the idea that my art was supposed to provide for me financially all my needs but I did want it to do so, which put a heavy burden on my creativity.  But how else would I be able to paint all day?  Right.

And although I have always been a bit of a rebel, some people that create art and do make a good living out of their art advice that we should stick to one style if we want to be successful at it. Well, I can't do that, I am full of creative ideas and they take shape and form in so many different ways that a while back I decided I had to be me.  I can not limit my creativity to just one style!

Not that I don't believe down the road I won't be able to make my living out of my art, because I believe I can with the right marketing, time and effort. And it's not like I'm totally going to drop off the art world either. But at this time in my life I am happy just creating, and God has also gifted me with an entrepreneur spirit to provide for me financially in a way that allows me to still paint every day anyways.

With my permission from Gilbert, I am creating again what I want and it may never be seen by others or it may, and it may be received with open arms or with criticism, but thanks to the idea from the book that we all have a genius that needs to express itself through a willing artist, it's really not my business how the world receives my art, its only my business to put it out there, that's all.

I welcome your feedback.

With Love,
Glad

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