What Do You Really Want?
Artful people make art for all sorts of reasons.
My reasons may be nothing like yours. Your reasons may be nothing like your friends’, or your instructor’s, or your spouse’s.
Your reasons for wanting to do what you want to do are your own. Whatever your motivations, they will propel you along a particular path in a particular way. Your path won’t mirror mine, or anyone else’s, because we all want different things from our artful lives.
Knowing What You Want Can Save Your Artful Life.
It can spare you tons frustration. It can also spare you the tragedy of leading a false life, which is what happens when you spend the hours of your days and the days of your life going after someone else’s idea of what your creative dream ought to be.
There are all kinds of things that keep us from acknowledging what it is we really, really want from our art. Here are three biggies:
Social Pressure. Our consumer-oriented society says the musician must record and tour. The writer must publish in a traditional manner. The painter must show in a gallery. Sometimes these are things we really, really want for ourselves, and sometimes they’re not. Until we examine our own desires and search out our own touchstones, we won’t know.
Others’ Desires for Us. Our Artful Heart’s desire may include fame and public accolades. We want to go for the gold. Our friends and partners might prefer that we be content with the silver and bronze and nickel alloy. Or they might assume we want the fame and accolades and bright lights and big cities, when what really motivates us is the idea of living in a small place where everyone knows our art and knows us as artists. Their perception can color our own.
Our Own Changing Needs. What we want for ourselves when we’re young is often not what we want when we’re older. The touchstones of our earlier years don’t always sustain us through a lifetime. We might find ourselves becoming disenchanted with our art in midlife, not realizing that our motivations have changed and we no longer want what we once did. This is not necessarily about settling for less. It’s about honoring our growing, changing selves.
It can be damned complicated to tease out our own motivations from the swirl of the world around us, and to allow those motivations to change over time. But whatever your particular touchstone, if you hold it in mind as you pursue your artful life, it will guide you more clearly than all the well-meaning advice and direction from friends and instructors and the culture at large.
Two Clues to Your True Motivation
Fear is sometimes a good indication that you’re close to your touchstone. Butterflies in the belly tell you something important is going on.
Joy is another indication. Funny how that works.
And If All Else Fails…
Sometimes the only way to figure out what it is we really, really want is to follow the READY-FIRE-AIM process, where we figure out what we want by learning first what we don’t want.
So go ahead and shoot in the general direction of what you think you’re going for. See how it makes you feel. Is it good? Not so good? Completely nauseating? Almost but not quite?
Adjust your sites. A little to the left, maybe?
And then make sure to reload and fire again.
