For some reason there is the belief out there that being an artist is easy. Sitting at an art show people would often say things like, "oh, it must be nice to make money for sitting and enjoying a nice day" or "what a great job to get paid to just paint"Gotta tell ya, these statements irritated the hell out of me. Not only had I gotten up in the wee hours of the morning to get to that art show, I had spent up to four hours doing heavy labor setting up my booth and I was stuck there in good or bad weather - they could get in their car and go home. And just where did they think my paintings (the ones I had just painted) had come from? The art fairies?
I worked a minimum 80 hour week earning my living at the art shows. It was hard work but I won't go into the details here, if you're interested in the life of a traveling artist you can read an article I wrote originally for a Scottsdale newspaper "An Open Letter to All Art Show Patrons". After you read it you'll understand why I retired last Spring.
I still work that many hours. Art is not easy - it's work. It's work that I love but it's hard work. It takes not only talent and passion, it takes education and dedication - and lots of time. And every artist is their own worst critic - we strive for perfection and, of course, we fail. Not only do we give our time to our vocation we give our heart so when things don't work out right or we are having a bad day it affects our emotions and our attitudes.
I bring this up because yesterday was not one of my better days at the business of creating art. It started out great - I finished up two really fun new Martini Art sketches which you can check out at The Martini Diva and I really loved them. Then I started on the background for a third and things went south from there. I ended up with a headache and a back attempting to spasm into the screaming mimis thanks to a monitor in a bad position.
I sat there with a heating pad on my back and pondered - yet again - why I became a professional artist and why I remain one after 40 years. And I was sitting there with a sketch pad and pencil in my lap! My feelings towards what I do has not changed since I wrote my Artist's Statement so many years ago. I love being an artist.
But anyone who says art is easy isn't doing it right.
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2 comments:
Thank you for this post...I sort of had a bad art day today too..just wasn't feeling it..oh well...maybe tomorrow.
Cindy - you have all my empathy! But it's true, "tomorrow is another day".
If you're like me the bad days are few and far between, and I always wake up raring to go the next morning. I hope you are feeling that today as well!
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