A 10 Step Guide To Becoming An Artist
— BY ADAM GREEN
Decide upon Artist as your destiny and begin to value you own visions with esteem and conviction. You can’t really start until you think that way about yourself.
Work 75% with the things that come naturally to you and don’t assume that just because a certain idea occurs naturally to you that it is obvious to anyone else.
Excavate exactly what it is inside your head and make that thing in the outside world.
Let your emotions guide them medium. If you are a songwriter, let your emotions guide the melody into words. If you are a visual artist, let your feelings enter into the lines and colours.
Juxtapose things that you don’t think have been put together before. Use the weight of one thing to balance the other.
Freak yourself out. Be the bravest version of yourself in your artwork. What is brave to you surely must be brave to some others. What is embarrassing or vulnerable is probably where the work is hiding.
Don’t be afraid to incorporate humour, but balance it with romance.
Regularly put aside two hour blocks of time - silence your phone and put it in a drawer. Apply yourself to a creative discipline. Its scary to start, but once you get rolling those two hours will pass quickly and you’ll have something to show for it.
Never give up on a piece of artwork, there is almost always another deeper level to consider it wherein it can be modified and recontextualised to serve your will. Take a break from that piece and revisit it with the goal to complete.
Don’t be hyper critical of yourself. If you find yourself criticising what you are creating too much, then change what you are going for. Don’t be a hater of what you make. Learn to love “all your children” to some degree and understand why you feel the need to create them.
Icon Image: The home of Hubert De Givenchy
13 - 11 - 19