Art Versus Artist

Cassie Bell is an artist on Etsy who creates beautiful beaded sun catchers and silk velvet stuffed cats. I own four of her pieces now -- two of each -- and if I didn't watch myself I'd probably spend all my money at her shop. There's something about what she creates that speaks to me. She captures light. She sculpts velvet. What an amazing aesthetic she has.

I don't know what to call my own art. I've never thought much about what it is, other than many things and all over the place. It certainly makes me happy. I just do it and hope that, whatever I create, the love and care I pour into it comfort and entertain and inspire someone else. I'm not important, really. For me the art is what matters. The people who buy or receive it are, too. If I can say this without sounding like an idiot, it's not personal to me. My self-esteem is not based on my art.

There is no right or wrong attitude toward your art; there's only what inspires and motivates you. Some folks need it to be about themselves rather than the joy of creation or giving or contributing some beauty to the world. I'm not like that, probably because there was no one but me involved in my artistic development until I turned pro.

Here's what I've observed over the years I've been a professional writer and amateur quilter: when art is more about the artist than what they create or the people they create it for, then the artist ends up disappointed and unhappy. When I realized this, it finally made sense of why so many creative types -- no matter how gifted they are -- become so miserable. It becomes all about them, and everything involved in the art does become very personal and directly affects the self-esteem. Over time the art dwindles away or becomes painful or even impossible to create. Not judging, mind you -- I've just seen this happen over and over again.

So today's thought is to take the artistic ego out of the equation and just let your art be your art. Find a way to do what you love, love what you do, and share it with the world whenever and however you can. I think you'll probably be much happier. :)

Comments

nightsmusic said…

Those cats are wonderful but I still say the quilt behind them is stunning.

I do art or drawing or writing or quilting or any number of other things because it makes me happy. I don't really care what others think (though I suspect, if I were published, I'd have to care from a sales perspective.) Sadly, too many people find their worth in what they do rather than who they are.

August 11, 2020 at 7:14 AM

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Valerean

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