“I know what my memoir would be called.”
“Oh yeah,” I said, “What?”
“The Art of Living with the Art.”
My wife was being completely sarcastic, but as she sat giggling at her own joke, the wheels started to turn in my head.
Yes, it’s a cheesy and pretentious title (and a pretty funny joke to boot). Even though I would never use it as a book title, there definitely was an art to living with the art one creates.
Art, and creativity, is an all encompassing journey. To do it well requires full mental, emotional, and physical commitment from the individuals or group doing the creating. It is no secret that artists, whether a painter or a business woman, have a tendency to become obsessed with our work. If we’re not careful, this obsession can have an extremely negative effect on our personal health and relationships. A big part of being an artist is learning to find your balance between full commitment to your work and even fuller commitment to those you love. This balance, as I am continually learning, is tough to find. There is most definitely an art to it.
The same balance needs to exist between the artist and his audience. How much or how little are you comfortable sharing with you audience? Do you just share your work? Or do you share all the intimate personal details of your life? Where do you draw the line? Inevitably, the answers to all of these questions will be different for every creator, but once again, there is an art to finding those answers and living them out.
But the questions don’t stop there...
How do you deal with success?
How do you deal with failure?
How do you deal with criticism? (And no, this is not the same as failure)(Not even close)
How do you deal with the awkward, but necessary act of “self-promotion”?
How do you deal with issues like morality, sexuality, politics, and faith in your art?
It becomes fairly easy to see that the artist’s life is not the quite the simple, nature walk, country life of Walden and Thoreau. In reality, every artist is constantly working on two projects...
Their current piece
And the art of living with the art
“Oh yeah,” I said, “What?”
“The Art of Living with the Art.”
My wife was being completely sarcastic, but as she sat giggling at her own joke, the wheels started to turn in my head.
Yes, it’s a cheesy and pretentious title (and a pretty funny joke to boot). Even though I would never use it as a book title, there definitely was an art to living with the art one creates.
Art, and creativity, is an all encompassing journey. To do it well requires full mental, emotional, and physical commitment from the individuals or group doing the creating. It is no secret that artists, whether a painter or a business woman, have a tendency to become obsessed with our work. If we’re not careful, this obsession can have an extremely negative effect on our personal health and relationships. A big part of being an artist is learning to find your balance between full commitment to your work and even fuller commitment to those you love. This balance, as I am continually learning, is tough to find. There is most definitely an art to it.
The same balance needs to exist between the artist and his audience. How much or how little are you comfortable sharing with you audience? Do you just share your work? Or do you share all the intimate personal details of your life? Where do you draw the line? Inevitably, the answers to all of these questions will be different for every creator, but once again, there is an art to finding those answers and living them out.
But the questions don’t stop there...
How do you deal with success?
How do you deal with failure?
How do you deal with criticism? (And no, this is not the same as failure)(Not even close)
How do you deal with the awkward, but necessary act of “self-promotion”?
How do you deal with issues like morality, sexuality, politics, and faith in your art?
It becomes fairly easy to see that the artist’s life is not the quite the simple, nature walk, country life of Walden and Thoreau. In reality, every artist is constantly working on two projects...
Their current piece
And the art of living with the art
