A love (maybe "tough-love") letter to artists.

This is my love (maybe “tough-love”) letter to artists. 

Dear Artist, 

I see you. 

Here’s what I see: 

You’re commonly misunderstood.  Misunderstood to be poor marketers, not good at representing yourself, you might feel like it’s boastful to show your work too much and be in love with it. 

You could have an internalized self-judgment that if you’re too proud of your work, or too happy with it,  someone may say you’re naiive,  Or worse, that it’s not good enough.  You may start to second guess yourself.  You might  frequently  judge yourself against some standard that was created by the system.  It’s absolutely made-up and a crazy game. 

You might have internalized oppression by formal art educators who don’t value pure self-expression.  You might believe you need to have lots of experience or a degree to be able to even call yourself an artist.  

Even as I write this, I understand my own bias as one who has invested thousands of dollars on degrees and countless hours into “my craft”.  Unlearning and undoing my own snobbery has been an education in itself.  And truly, I believe  in my heart that pure expression is a birthright to all humans.  

I love and admire that you continue to make your work despite selling or not, despite what others think.  What’s so special that you don’t see in yourself is how utterly beautiful it is to keep your practice. 

I wish you knew that the drive to keep creating does not need to be separate from the drive to share it with the world.   When the vulnerable, pure heart that loves what it loves is safe to speak in words as easily as it does in images and color, magic can happen.