{original watercolor and ink painting of mine circa 1980's ish}
Oi! I have so much to prepare for my shop update tomorrow... but Jan of Poppytalk wrote this incredibly thought provoking post that's been on my mind since yesterday. When something stirs me for that long, I know it's time to say something. I could write a very long comment over at her blog or I could just say it here, share it with you and then I recommend if you haven't checked out her post, and this new one Earl put up to today, please do. There is a great discussion happening over there.
Jan's post touched upon several subjects that I am equally as passionate about
- Staying authentic and original as an artist, a blogger, a teacher and a business owner
- the internet, how it's changed things and where it's headed
- the indie market of handmade goods in particular
- bloggers who make a living with their blogs
- copycats
- competition
- stealing
- beginning
- and continuing
- big business vs. small business
- staying in business period
- change
Now as you probably already know {me and my 'thoughts on things'} I could write a blog post or 2 on each of these subjects. Where do I even begin?! What I want to do with this post is keep the discussion going. I'll start by sharing some initial thoughts on how I came to be here as an artist in this blogosphere. Then I'll share my thoughts on some of these subjects with a whole bunch of bullet points. And I'll try to do that as succinctly as I can ;) Oh #$%* it! This post is just going to be as long as it needs to be.
Ok here goes:
I am a circa 2006 podcaster and then a blogger, a circa 2000 started my own internet company, and a circa 1996 graphic designer when the web and email for that matter, just began. I've been an artist and on computers circa my childhood.
I'm one of these people who owned a typewriter and also owned one of the very first MACs, remember that little box? I drew one of my first illustrations on the computer at age 12. Computers, and the world of technology have felt like second nature to me which is why it makes perfect sense that this present online world feels like home.
In the last 6 years alone the changes that have happened are INCREDIBLE and the speed with which things are continuing to change is super fast. We live in a remarkable time. Without the internet having expanded in the way it has I would not be making my living the way that I now do. It changed my life.
And what's the saying? the only constant in life is change.
In Jan's post she wrote specifically about 2005 when a lot of this art/design/blogging world got started, which is exactly the same time when I first became aware of blogging. Although I cannot forget two of my high school friends who started blogging years before and I remember thinking, "what are they doing? journaling online? ~ wow! I could never do that." Which as many of you who have taken online classes with me or listened to podcasts know that blogging was about the last thing I wanted to do. Just go back to my early posts and you'll see that I only posted my paintings and wrote next to nothing. I'm not a journaler people. In fact given the opportunity to speak or write it I will speak it which is why I started podcasting before I even started this blog.
Let's just say that in 2006 when I entered the scene not only did I feel like a newbie but I already felt like a late comer, even with all my technological comfort and insight. I can only imagine how those of you entering the scene now must feel. A literal zoo out here with tons of internet hootenanny, the online world has indeed changed A LOT in these last few years.
I find it can feel much harder to get noticed. Then again let's keep it in perspective, it is still so much easier to create work that you love and share it with an audience, your audience, and eventually grow it into a full time business. 'Eventually' is the key word here.
Nothing happens overnight people. And even if let's say some reality show deems you a superstar overnight, you still have to have the chops to keep working when all that initial recognition falls away.
I recently re-tweeted a quote that said "it takes 20 years to make an overnight success". If there is anything that living in Hollywood has taught me, is that this is true. Just about every 'celebrity actor' you know about was working a very long time before they ever became a household name.
Look I know better than anyone how the internet can make change happen fast. It must be confusing to stand at the edge of this world, see incredible things happening for people left and right at quantum speed and not think that hey this can happen for me too. And it CAN. Just don't forget to look at what is behind the apparent 'overnight success' of anyone. Do not assume that by starting a blog and sharing your art with the world today, that you will be making a living by tomorrow. It still takes time. And yes, as much as I am one for ease, it still takes WORK; work that you will LOVE doing but work nonetheless. If I think of everything I did before I even arrived on this scene and then think about the amount of work I have done in the last 4 years alone, I honestly cannot even believe it.
Just to start with I have posted 1,039 times to this blog and have created a body of work that includes at least 500 paintings not including the other original creations from ceramics to clay sculptures to sewing I have also made along the way...I have recorded via audio and video for my podcasts, online classes, and this blog over 100 times...you get the picture.
And it honestly feels like 4 years in to this version of my business, eleven years into my life as an entrepreneur, and 21 years working, right now is when it is really just beginning to come together.
Why?
Because it takes time. It takes time to find your voice as a person, an artist, a blogger, and a business owner. You have to try, experiment, explore and commit to this journey, before you even begin to scratch the surface of who you are meant to be in this world.
Some of us may be lucky in having the right support early on in life, encouraging us to believe we can be whatever we want. Some of us may trust our own calling long before others do. Some of us have had to try many different avenues that didn't work to finally find the one that did. Some of us may still be trying. All of it, all of these scenarios are life and from the perspective from where I now stand, the best parts of life. I wouldn't trade one nightmare boss, I worked for at least 3 of them, for what I now know and have. Every bit of life experience lead me here, it was all worth it to have the clarity and the knowledge I now have.
In Closing to everyone, and especially to the newbies in this world: {Oh and for the record, these are my ideas based upon my life experience. I will never claim to have all the answers or know the best way to do anything. I am still becoming...and I will always turn it back to you as the best resource to find your own answers with all of this.}
- being a newbie in any world takes bravery and is awesome {when I did my very first podcasts, having never done anything like that before one of the first ones I recorded was inspired by this very idea and it was called "be willing to play like a rookie"}
- never, ever, ever give up on your dreams ~ be willing to let them unfold before you in ways and a timing you might not have expected, but always trust that they can happen
- do not let anyone including me ;) tell you how long it will all take or that you have to pay your dues {for the record in this post I am not talking about 'paying your dues'. I hated that saying when I first entered the career world and I hate it now. What I'm talking about is a willingness to do the work of life: to mature, become wiser and better at your chosen your craft, a process that continues as long as we are alive}
- Even if it takes while for it to happen, good work will always get noticed and recognized
- "There are no new ideas" is something my favorite boss {I had one good one!} told me when I was first starting out in interior design
- I know the best part and one of the most challenging parts about the internet is being able to see and follow everything. What once felt like an original idea, do a little internet surfing and it no longer is so original. So how do we stay original in a time like this? Well we're creative aren't we? That's what we do. We push, we challenge ourselves to come up with the new idea. So do it then.
- Does this mean you will never have the same idea at the same time or unintentionally copy someone? No. It will still happen, especially now
- Do new artists finding their voice mimic other's styles? Absolutely. Is it part of the process to finding your own voice? Yes, I think it is.
- Direct copying and claiming it as your own. NEVER OK.
- Will we be inspired and influenced by other artist's out there? Absolutely
- Will elements of their work show up in our work consciously or unconsciously? probably so. One of the things I loved most in this video of Oliver Jeffers talking about his process, was hearing him identify so many artists who have directly influenced and inspired his work. I think Oliver is a wonderful, original artist and author of our time. Is he reinventing the wheel? nope. Is that the point of becoming an artist? for some maybe, but not for all. Some of us just like to create work that makes us happy and in turn might make someone else happy as well.
- I think today, in large part due to the internet, we are becoming overly afraid of creating ~ for fear that someone might steal from us or that we might be unknowingly copying someone else. With so much creating happening {let's be thankful for this!} and so much visual archiving and access to such creating there is almost no way you are going to make something that someone might not see something related to someone else's work, but it can still be ORIGINAL. An artist's work is to discover and then let that originality come through in themselves and their creatuibs.
- Again because of the digital age, people can steal images of someone else's work. I just accept that the more my work is out there, the more likely it is that someone could steal it. But also because of the digital age, I have an entire army of people who let me know the minute someone does steal it. It's amazing. The times my work has been ripped off someone has brought it to my attention. I have actually never gone out looking for any signs of theft.
- If someone steals my work, I may fight it, I may not. But I will never, ever let it stop me from continuing to create.
- Stealing and copying of your ideas, as vile as it is, does mean that you have good ideas
- It's a heartbreaking subject, it just is. And I'm glad to part of community that sticking up for ourselves and looking out for one another
- Another design mentor of mine when asked how he handles people who copy his designs simply said "By the time they steal my design, I'm already out ahead thinking of the next one"
- It is our job as entrepreneurs and artists to always be thinking out ahead.
- I am learning that resting on your laurels and being an entrepreneur do not co-exist
- Copying someone's business model is absolutely going to happen. Stealing it exactly. NEVER OK
- This goes the same for e-courses and yes I will also say this: teach what you know and make sure you are teaching something that you have experience in. Please do not teach online classes simply because everyone else is doing it. It took me years of experience before l felt like I had earned the right to be paid to teach.
- Be a trend maker, not a trend follower
- Believe that there is enough room for everyone to be creative, have a business, have a voice, have a blog, teach a course whatever it is. Just be authentic.
It takes a lot of bravery to speak your authentic voice in this world sometimes, and I just want to say thanks again to Jan for sharing her post yesterday. One of my favorite blogs and one of the few I still visit, I have worked alongside Jan for the last 4 years and she has always been consistent in her kindness and professionalism. In today's world, that speaks volumes.
I will leave you with what I wrote to her in an email yesterday: "At the end of the day the people who love and care the most about their art, design, and blogging businesses will remain. I think we are going to see a turn, where a lot of people will fall away because you cannot sustain a business built on sand, especially ones that are built on stealing ideas from someone else".
Having your own business, especially as an artist, one that will sustain itself through the ebbs and flows, you have to love it with all you are.
