On Passion, Courage and Grace

Recently I saw the movie “The Soloist” and of all the threads that touched me the one that stuck the most was the importance of Passion,Courage and Grace in the creative process. Passion keeps us committed to the act of creating, Courage helps us allay our fears of failure and Grace gives us the foundation of belief in ourselves and our ultimate ability to bring our gifts to the world. This thread so hit me that I realized it pretty much described the framework for what would call successful, professional artists.

As most of you know we launched out Artist recognition program by awarding The artstyfartsy biz award to five outstanding artists last week. One of the main motivating factors for creating the award came from my own desire to identify and honor artists who exemplified a holistic approach to integrating art and art and business.  I have been looking for role models who were blazing the trail for others to follow by showing that the path is not automatic nor is it easy nor is it a one size fits all template. Blazing the trail involves risk, fired by passion, sustained by courage and and reinforced with grace. It also involves trust, belief and love.

A brief return to ANTS

I wanted to create a way for those hesitating out of fear to see that they are not alone. And, if you have been reading this blog regularly you know that I have talked about fear regularly. Fear can freeze us up, it can keep us locked in a state of continual ground hog day like loops..and if examined closely the fear is usually related to judgment, and manifested by those nasty ANTS I talked about awhile back. One of the largest of the ANTS,  is fear of failure to meet our own or someone else’s perfectionist expectations. For those of us over 45 that fear is worse when it comes to anything electronic,  showing up in the form of a 10 year old geeky grand kid with an attitude. So instead of telling the kid to shut-up and go play elsewhere we shrivel at their impatience sure in our shame that we are less than human.

Breaking out of this fear cycle takes guts and gumption no matter your age. I know it may appear that we are the only ones on the planet to fear. But really, we aren’t… everybody has some sort of fear to deal with and it is how we deal with fear that differentiates us from  those who let their fear run them.

More than their art

Each of the five artists were not only talented in their medium they also knew that success was dependent on their willingness to venture into the unfamiliar left brain centric world of business they each exhibited:

Passion

Each of the artists  exhibits a high degree of skill when it comes to their medium, a depth of understanding that is necessary in order to give life to their visions through the medium. Each is also skilled in more than one medium or artistic expression passionaltely  expanding, experimenting, and incorporating new techniques. Like Nathaniel Ayers they can’t imagine a day or minute not creating.

Each artist searched out and learned to use more than one method to sell their work. Some, have set up online store fronts, sold through galleries or through commissioned works. What they did not do was let themselves be limited by a particular paradigm for selling their work.

Courage

They sought out other ways of receiving income from their work that both increased  the visibility of their work and increased the ways their  buyer’s could  enjoy their work. In order to make their work more accessible and visible they took risks by putting their work on jewelry, apparel, and even coffee mugs. They realized that the person using a mug might either purchase the original  or a friend might end up purchasing the original. They know and accept that only a percentage of those purchasing one of their collateral products might result in an up sell.

They embrace the new business paradigms buy learning and adapting to new techniques of marketing their work. Each actively uses social media in ways that will build their credibility and networks  increasing  their  visibility to more potential buyers. On a more detailed level they understand that  finding and connecting with folks who “get them” is critical to their success as artists in the 21st century.

Grace

Each engaged their network by blogging,  one of the most effective ways to build and connect to a network  available to artists today. They gracefully share their work, both current work, and in process.  They freely share both their successes and their failures showing that usccess is not possible without a few failures to learn from. They know the importance of being human, so they also share parts of their lives outside of their art. They share their challenges as they  balance their roles of wife, mother, sister, teacher, and student.

They realize the importance of nurturing their loyal buyers by gracefully giving without expectation. Whether it is in the form of a tutorial on their blog, a handmade and written thank you, or a holiday card and small gift they have a deep knowing that their relationship with their network is a sacred one. And they  recognize that their role in such a  sacred relationship is to always strive to be true to their vision so they can continue to show up for their supporters.

Collectively, they’re passionate about their work, courageous about stepping into unfamiliar territory and graceful in their internal faith and confidence in their own vision. Most importantly each realizes that “no one  changes anything by playing it safe”.

How do you show your Passion, Courage and Grace? Are you playing it safe?

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