One of the bonuses to showing at FloatArt was being invited to attend seminars with guest speaker Jeremy Hull. The intention of these seminars was to discuss the process of moving from art school graduate into ‘the real world’ as a practising artist.
The key questions asked of us by Jeremy were:
- What are the things standing in the way of us achieving our goals?
- What are our fears for the future?
The fears and obstacles suggested by the group were all the things you would typically expect…….
What if nobody likes my work? How can I financially support my practise? How do I stay motivated enough to keep making work? Access to materials and workshops. Do I have / how do I make the right connections? IE: Galleries, other artists for crits and support, buyers, curators etc.
Another question Jeremy raised was how much control do you feel you have over the path that your career will take? The general consensus between the group was very little. We then realised that this was actually a positive thing. If we have very little control then that means that the future is laced with uncertainty. If the future is full of uncertainty, then anything can happen! This is actually really exciting.
Going back to the long list of fears and obstacles, after discussing them we realised that none of them were actually real / concrete. They were all self imposed. They were imposed by us through our fear of the unknown. The key was to realise that these thoughts have an impact inwardly, just as our work has an impact outwardly. The dialogue we have with ourselves is actually really powerful, and so every doubt that we repeat to our selves, such as nobody will want to buy my work, means that we are blocking our own paths / opportunities by believing our inner critic.
So, how do we move forward with our practise and squash all of these obstacles and fears? Communication. Through communication we can take ownership and generate opportunities, build networks, get our work shown, sell our work, connect to other artists. This is why conversation is such a powerful tool. To be able to communicate your ideas is invaluable. As artists we are communicators- and as Jeremy stated- we communicate in ways that other people couldn’t imagine. That is what makes art. Harnessing these skills and using them to drive each area of our lives forward means that we are taking ownership and being proactive in driving our practise forward.
To end, I will leave something wonderful that Jeremy said to us.
Artists are gifts. We are all gifts to the world. We make work that gives on so many levels. People walk into that gallery, see your work and take a part of it home with them. They experience it and are changed for it. It gives them something on a deeper level. And so we are gifts to the world. It does not entitle us to anything, but we should know the power we have through our ability to communicate and share our ideas.
