Selling Art - Believe in Your Endeavour

Being totally original is not really important in the beginning of your endeavour to be a good artist.

However...believing in yourself is.

There are so many artists out there who feel they haven't passed the audition, because they have not yet discovered their true voice or originality.

Therefore, they tend to keep their art out of sight or closely guarded (some never even get started).

The desire for believing in yourself has to be stronger than the desire to be original in order to get your work in the public eye.

Don't wait to be original... originality can wait.

Why do I favour this theory?

Well... because I was one of those artists who boarded up the walls and doors, and worked in search of perfection, a voice and originality... only to discover that it was simply a lack of belief in my ability as an artist that was really holding me back.

I then glued myself to the belief; that despite my progress (or lack of) at that time, Nobody can do what I do the way I do it.

Well, perhaps they could...in terms of practicality.

But the true principal was that nobody could do it with such passion, vigor or with a deeper explanation than me... therefore it was my own... it was original because I believed in it now.

In addition to that, I found a voice that was kind of like... barking over my shoulder...

"Don't wait for validation or approval. You don't need permission - give yourself permission"

Secondly...

I receive emails from artists all around the world who tell me that I have inspired them to come out of the dark and start showcasing their art. I don't mention this to boast because that is not my intention at all.

I only mention it to reinforce the point that there are many artists waiting for permission, so to speak.

The thing is... it really isn't a strange concept or hard to imagine that there are artists like that out there.

Especially when you consider that there are many people working a job that makes them completely unhappy, not realising that they are more than likely waiting for permission (from who?) to pursue a new career in order to get on with living a life of self-expression instead of drudgery.

It's this knowing I have in regards to many artists stuck at the starting gate that lent me to the idea of promoting, "Don't wait for "that" day"

Tell the ego to "hush it" for a while and practice the art of believing in yourself, because you know you want to, you are allowed to and you must do in order to completely live a life of self expression.

Power to you and your art!