my biggest lessons from 17 years as an artist

This autumn marks 17 years since I started considering myself to be ‘an artist’ - both as my identity and as the main way I wanted to earn a living.

Over those years I have been an artist alongside working as a freelancer, part-time jobs, teaching, becoming a parent and the pandemic...always trying to find ways to connect with my creativity and share my art with the world.

I’ve experienced success and failure, big sales and financial worry, joy and burnout. I’ve done amazing, beautiful, wonderful projects I am proud of, aaaaand I’ve had periods where I was sure the only answer was to quit and get a ‘proper job’ (which I tried to do a few times).

I’ve learned a lot along the way.

So I thought I’d share 17 lessons that I’ve learned in that time, in the hopes that my hard won knowledge will help you on your own creative journey. A quick disclaimer though! I am still working on most of these daily. They are a constant practice for me to uphold. But they've also made a big difference ✨

Creative Mindset

1.There will never be a ‘right time’ to create your art. Something will always pop up to get in the way. While some of these will mean putting art on the back burner (for example grief, or a health crisis) if you are always waiting for the ‘perfect time’ you’ll never make the things you dream of. Life will keep on coming at you, so try to find small ways to work towards what matters to you in the life you have now.

2. You don’t need to make art every day to be an artist. If you can - great! But if you can’t this concept will just become a source of guilt, or lead you to postpone seeing yourself as an artist until you think you’ll be able to do so. Make art important, make art as often as possible, but mostly just make art when you can.

3. There will always be someone better than you, or further along than you, or more successful than you. Focus on your progress, how far you have come, how much you are learning because that’s the only comparison that matters.

4. Trying to specialise or choose a niche because you think it’s on trend or will help you build an audience quickly is a dead-end path. You won’t be able to sustain it because the passion isn’t there, you’ll end up feeling trapped by it, (and if you’re anything like me) you’ll burn it all down.

5. Working harder is rarely the answer. It just burns you out. Working in a way that is sustainable - and accepting that busy periods will need to be balanced out with periods of more rest - will make more impact in the end.

6. You can’t hustle your way through burnout. Rest, connection, creativity and physical movement are essential to moving beyond a state of chronic stress (Read ‘Burnout - The Secret To Solving The Stress Cycle’ by Emily and Amelia Nagoski if you want to learn more about this).

7. Most productivity advice was created by neurotypical people who value productivity above all else and see it as a moral virtue. Ignore them and work out what works for your life, and your brain.

Money

8. If you want to make your art just for the joy of it, it’s probably best to keep money out of it completely. As soon as you start to make money from it all sorts of new challenges arise such as expenses, marketing and selling.

9. If you do want to make money from your art or services, try to be as honest with yourself about that as possible. If it’s helpful to see ‘money as an exchange of energy’ start there. But in the end, the quicker you begin to work on the discomfort you feel around wanting to make money from your art, the sooner you’ll stop holding yourself back from doing so.

10. If you want to know if something has the potential to support financially, start by working out how much living costs you and then do the maths to see how much you’d have to sell to make that figure. (Jessica Abel taught me that one).

11. Trying to make money from your art will bring every single one of your beliefs about money right up to the surface. And because most of us grew up in a society full of mixed messages about money, you’ll end up going in circles with yourself. Work on any subconscious beliefs you have about money as they pop up, and accept there will always be some contradictions.

12. ‘Being nice’ is not going to magically lead to people paying you the money you need. By all means be kind, be generous, and help other people. But always be conscious of why you are doing it. Just being ‘nice’ in the hope that everything will fall in to place for you will likely lead to resentment of your art…and resentment towards to people you were nice to when it doesn’t just work out for you.

Marketing

13. You need to believe that you have something of value to share with the world before you market it. Waiting for other people to validate your art before you do will leave you constantly seeking praise…and feeling utterly crushed every time you share something and get crickets or criticism in return.

14. Having lots of followers doesn’t equal success (unless your only goal is to have lots of followers). Follower numbers is nothing without them turning in to paying customers, clients or a meaningful community that makes the impact you want it to.

15. Social media is designed to make us pour all of our creative energy and skill in to making money for billionaires who couldn’t care less about us. Use what they offer you, but save most of your creative energy for your art. (Oh and start a mailing list - if you need help with that come to this workshop!).

The Bigger Picture

16. You can’t fail at being a creative. You can only learn, refine, adapt, improve, evolve or change direction. Even if all your best laid plans fall through, or you get rejected for that grant you thought would fix everything, or you have to close down your small creative business - you haven’t failed at being a creative. Being creative is a way of…well, being. Not the achievements you gain along the way.

17. Your creativity matters. Even when terrible things are happening. Even when you feel selfish, or indulgent, or like you should be doing so many other important things. You are a creative being, therefore you need to create. It will make you a much more positive force in this world then if you ignore it out of guilt.

I hope one of these was useful to you! And if you have any you would like to add please share them in the comments and I’ll make a follow-up post 😊

Sending you kind wishes and creative magic,

Ellie 🌠