Last week I wrote about the 5 stages in the creative’s path to success. From my experience I tend to see 5 recognizable stages:

Stage 1 AWAKENING
Stage 2  DISCOVERY
Stage 3 INTEGRATION
Stage 4  RHYTHM
Stage 5  MASTERY

Last week I described the very first stage. It is called AWAKENING. It is that time in your life when you suddenly find yourself finding your way back to art. It is a time usually filled with a re awakened curiosity and passion for finding or re-finding your creative expression. You can read more about AWAKENING here.

Today, however, I am going to talk about the second stage in the Path to success…
It is called DISCOVERY.

Interestingly, it is the overflow of curiosity and passion that occurs in Stage one, AWAKENING, that sets you up for entering this second stage.

The stage of DISCOVERY is all about learning. It is a time of looking outside more than within yourself for answers. This stage is where you begin to seek out information from teachers, classes or anyone who seems farther along than you. This is the time when the crucial information that you are looking for starts to emerge. It comes in the form of teachers, classes that you might stumble upon, or even just a book that you are given by a friend.

This stage is also often marked with heightened synchronicity in your life. The tendency for the universe to provide you with what you are looking for can be remarkably effortless during this time. The tailwinds that seem to follow those who chase down what truly is meaningful for them are now most likely going to follow you too.

This stage is also about discovering new relationships, learning to ask for help from others and the realization again, that this whole art thing is totally doable, especially with the help of others. As your confidence increases you might find yourself sharing your art more with friends on and offline. The support and positive feedback which almost always occurs, is empowering and ads to your momentum.

The initial learning of techniques, fundamentals of art making such as value, design and color are all part of this stage too. DISCOVERY is an exhilarating stage but it also has its challenges. It is hard to be a beginner at anything. However your improvement is so quick in this stage that at times it can take your breath away. It becomes apparent at some point that you are discovering not just your art, but yourself in the process.

Have you passed through this stage? What do you remember about it?

Sometimes the best moments come when you just put down paint on the panel.

One of the challenges of being on a path of creating art is that, it is often you don’t know where you are. It can be hard to determine if you are getting anywhere, especially if you have never been there before.

What does a path to success in art making look like? Of course it is different for everyone. Success for some could be just being able to free up an afternoon once a week to make art, while for someone else, success means being able to financially thrive as an artist.

Since I have been on this path for many years I thought I would spend a little time laying out the steps I see artists go through on the way to achieving their artistic goals. And remember where you are on this path and whether you actually desire to move anywhere other than where you are is of course perfectly fine. However from my experience the vast majority of people tend to want to move along accomplishing more and shifting their art in the process. I basically see five stages that artists tend to pass through as they develop.

I will be taking the next 5 weeks to detail each of them.

There are 5 stages:

Stage 1 AWAKENING
Stage 2 DISCOVERY
Stage 3 INTEGRATION
Stage 4 RHYTHM
Stage 5 MASTERY

Today I am going to be describing the very first stage: AWAKENING

STAGE  1 AWAKENING

This is the stage that many of us stumble into when finding our art again perhaps after many years of absence. It is our beginning. For some, it is a return to what we originally were doing in elementary school or even college before more practical career choices emerged. Sometimes our art is put aside due to limiting beliefs about talent or the starving artist syndrome. Sometimes we allow others to derail and define what we truly desire. Regardless, whether coming to your art for the second time or the first time, this stage is usually jam packed with a whirlwind of excitement, passion and curiosity.

This time, there is less uncertainty about whether your art is worth pursuing. It comes in as a gigantic YES! It often answers an inner need you have felt for a long, long time.

Curiously, the soul of a creative is never, ever quieted by practical, objections. Your intellect might not admit it but the soul knows better. Art making is part of your DNA. It has always been expressed in many facets of your life, despite the fact that it has not been given free reign to make art. So when you do, the message comes in loud and clear.

It is this certainty, this “yes” that often pushes you to actually considering the possibility of making your art in a more serious way. This stage is empowering, and filled with curiosity about what is possible for you. Sharing, perhaps with a few close friends, some of what you are making only helps to confirm what you already know. This is real and it feels ever so right. Despite all the odds stacked against you and the busyness of your life, this art thing just won’t go away. It feels familiar. It makes you feel alive in ways you haven’t experienced for a long, long time. You sense that you are coming back to your self. And in a very real way you are. You have come home.

This stage creates the momentum that will help you transition to the next one. Discovery.
Next week I will dive into what exactly this is and how to recognize it.

Do you remember your Awakening stage? What happened?

What do you prefer?

The tricky part in life is making the right decisions. Everyone struggles with this. Lately I feel like I have been not doing so well at making decisions. It is hard to know because what might, at first, feel like a mistake, maybe down the road, will feel right. I hope so.

Of course a huge amount of what makes something right is what we create around the decision. “The grass is greener where we water it” is what my daughter just told me. I think that is true.

Making art is a practice of being ourselves. The more time we spend in this place, the better we get at making creative decisions. They generally get more refined and sensitive. Our improving art is a testament to this idea.

In times when things are uncertain or difficult it is a pretty safe bet to go back into your art. Let it remind you that you have been here before. I can hear myself so much easier standing in front of something I am making. Your art is like a mirror. It is you but in a different form. It stands beside you, like a friend, encouraging your best self to speak up and to know clearly when to say No, but much, more importantly when to say Yes to what you truly desire.

It seems like wherever we are in our art making, we always want to be someplace better. Often, our art or our ability to make our art feels inadequate.

And it doesn’t feel so good. The real problem, however, is that this discontent sometimes never goes away. If we are not careful it can follow us around. It sits just out of sight with us in the studio when we are making our art and it even can follow us home if we let it.

Never feeling good enough is pervasive. Lots of people have this feeling.

It takes time to change this habitual way of thinking. But it is worth it if it even partially brings back the joy, and the ease of making your art again. If we can, then there exists the real possibility of bringing amazing, personal artwork into the world. This issue, this feeling of not being happy with where we are presently, needs some attention.

Here is how I like to reframe the narrative so that I can feel more content with where I am…

There is a very, very long road. It starts at the bottom of a valley and gradually winds its way up hills and then, eventually, it goes all the way to the very tip top of the mountain.

This pathway or road represents the entire creative journey you may take in your life. When you start exploring the possibility of making art you are in the very beginning. As one climbs this pathway the view becomes greater. The experience is heightened because it is more expansive in beauty and vistas the higher you go. You can see more and more. It can take years, decades, a lifetime even to climb this road.

The most fantastic thing is to be on the road. It doesn’t matter where you are on the road, only that you are on it. Some people are further up the road and others are further down the road. Your place on the road has more to do with time spent walking, not talent. Even though the road slowly gets better the further along the road you go, you don’t want to short change yourself by magically appearing someplace further up the road than where you are right now.

Each and every step forward is to be savored, because you will never get to move through this part of the road again. You get to do each part only once in your lifetime. You never get to go backwards. Only forward.

Here are just a few of the first steps possibly encountered along this path:

The first time you realize you can make art, the first time someone that matters loves what you have made, the first time it feels hard then incredibly easy, the first time you have a show or you give something you made away as a gift, the first time you teach someone something you have learned, the first time you get interviewed, your first solo show, and especially the unforgettable moment when for the first time, you know in your heart of hearts, that you are an artist

There are of course infinite steps you get to take but the most important thing to remember is that you don’t want to miss any of them.

The value of the next step you are about to take or discover is in part determined by the prior step.

So in this scenario, if you can imagine wherever you are on the road right now, then why would you feel you want to be anywhere else? The reason you are not at mile 50 is because you are only at mile 25. It has nothing to do with talent, lucky breaks, tailwinds, money etc.

What has helped me is to take all my dissatisfaction, my impatience and all the limiting negative thoughts about where I think I ought to be and re focus back to what I am making and where I am right now. Not surprisingly, this frees up a lot of energy, which now can be channeled back into your art.

So if you feel that sinking feeling of judgment or dissatisfaction creeping back in, take a breath and re look at what you are making right now. Take a chance, re commit to making it the best thing you have ever made so far. Savor this moment, this opportunity because it actually will never be here again in this certain way.

Do you sometimes feel dissatisfied too? What do you do about it?

A key part of finding your style is getting inspired by the work of other artists.

The fantastic thing about making art is that there are no rules. There is no one-way, there isn’t even a hundred ways. There are infinite ways. And this is what is so expansive about the whole enterprise of art making. It has to be malleable. It has to be different for everyone because every individual artist is utterly unique.

We all know art can look and be a gazillion different ways and whether you like it or not, it still falls into that big category called Art.

However in talking and listening to so many artists, it still feels like there are vestiges of limiting beliefs about the way that an artist, if she is to become successful, significant, and considered serious, should do their careers. An old school kind of a thinking… it is almost a cliché of a career path for artists. It goes something like this… no recognition early on, limited financial resources… starving for possibly years, refusing to compromise, and then possibly getting discovered by a prestigious gallery that champions your art which will leads to museum shows and significant fame and recognition possibly, but probably not, while you are alive to enjoy it.

Not only is this depressing, but it is also not how it works out for the majority of people I know who make art. It certainly hasn’t been like this for me.

Today, thankfully, surviving as an artist can look an infinite number of ways. And I say surviving to mean financially, emotionally, physically – there are a lot of challenges to pulling off a career as an artist – all doable, but a degree of stamina, endurance is required.

Artists survive financially from selling their art. But today, they also sell prints of their work, they teach, they do some art they are not as excited about that sells well to make money to afford to make art they love, they have a separate career that supports their art, some artists sell at local art fairs, some sell their work in restaurants, some in gyms, some on Facebook. Some artists make t-shirts and sell their art that way, some print their art onto products like bowls cups and scarfs. Some even make wallpaper, greeting cards and even coloring books. Some price their art ridiculously cheap as they love to make it affordable to sell it to as may people as possible, others only sell through agents or galleries charging a premium. Some barter with it, others sell it only to friends. Some don’t sell their art as all.

Do you get it? The under underlying criteria, the thing to not have any judgment about- and I am speaking to artists reading this as we all carry too much of this limited thinking about what is possible for us- is how we sell our art, and in general, how we individually survive in order to make art another day.

For years I made art for business applications…book covers, annual reports, and magazines – it is called illustration. I have made and sold prints of my work. Lots of them. I even started a company that took my art and mass-produced my art on gift products… things like trays, decorative boxes, and even paperweights.

And you know what? I loved doing all of it. I put as much of myself into all that work as I do my large abstract paintings I am currently making. There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, with selling your art anyway you like.

Because at the end of the day the whole point, the whole reason for creating a financial flow from sales having to do with your art is so you can keep moving closer and closer to doing exactly what you want as much of the time as you can. In other words, making art you love.

That is such a noble pursuit. So don’t let the means tarnish, at all, the results. Every day that you can afford your studio, your art supplies, your free time so that you can make your art is a tremendous accomplishment.

It is all about staying in the game. No matter what, keep going. Keep following what you already in your heart of hearts you already are, what you have always been. An artist.

Someone asked me yesterday what I do with my old work, so I decided to make a little video about it. Enjoy!

Pricing can be a difficult thing. Here’s how I price my work.