You hear those voices in your head when you are discouraged as an artist. Those words, those frowns about your art that has stuck with you, that wavers your confidence, that at times stops you from freely creating. You doubt, you feel stuck. Then you scroll through the comments, through the messages, read the appreciation and support. You remember the smiles and the conversations with people about what a positive effect your art has had. You feel good and encouraged and willing to create again.
It happens to me and am sure it has happened to you. Don’t treat it as criticism or praise, they are people’s opinions. And isn’t art meant to be subjective? Seen and felt from different perspectives? Then why do you (the artist) care so much?
Ok, as artists, we want to please people, want to impress people. We feel deeply, whether its positive feedback or negative. But, we shouldn’t be affected by either (easier said than done, I know).
These days, I have been consciously working on not caring about what other people think. Not to say that I don’t get affected at all. I do. There are still those days. But I am trying not to as much. It took me a while to get here.
How did I get to this point? Well, my art. Becoming more and more in tune with my voice and thoughts every day. I am concerned on what I personally feel about the work, if it is aligned with my artistic vision, if I am satisfied with it, rather than those likes (or dislikes) and what people are saying about it.
Do the people on social media know what was going inside your head when you were creating it? No! Do they know all the times you failed and got frustrated and how many canvases and papers you threw away before you got to the final piece? No! Do they know the joy and the happy excited feeling when that thing you were trying to explore clicked and you finally got it? No! Do they know all of the behind the scenes and all that went in your studio? No! Do you know all this? Have you lived and experienced every second of it? Yes!
Then whose opinions, whose praises, whose criticism should matter? Yours or theirs? Why, yours and ONLY yours of course! Now, go make art your way, and ONLY your way.