Introduction
What is success? Really, what is it? Is it routinely getting big prices? Is it exceeding the accolades of others? Is it winning prize after prize, the best in show? Is it being considered the best artist in the public hivemind? Is it being famous, being a star? Is it winning huge company contracts? And who’s qualified to determine when we’ve been successful? Yet if we don’t achieve these milestones, does that mean we’re a failure? And does that doom us to failure forever?
These questions can have different answers for different people but for the artist, they pose a particularly valuable meditation. Because it’s easy to get swept up in the maelstrom of public opinion as a means to gauge our success. Yet public opinion can be contradictory and misinformed, and also unwelcome and harsh even for the thickest skin. Our prices and prizes and stardom could be used as a gauge to determine our success, sure, but we all know the brilliant talent who gets overlooked and the questionable talent who gets all the kudos, don’t we? Often times, there’s just no sense in trends. And companies have their own agendas that make using their attention a dicey proposition for measuring our success as well. Indeed, there are plenty of ingenious artists out there who companies ignore. In the end then, we’re actually left with a lot of subjectivity and inconsistency with these metrics, aren’t we? So how does an artist cultivate a healthy, more accurate measure of success that also empowers their studio and bolsters their relevance in the market?
These are not easy issues to address because they require a deep introspection that can be uncomfortable, especially when realism is such a lofty goal. Disillusionment and discouragement are easy emotions to indulge here in knee-jerk avoidance but they’re the worst influences on both the creative urge and the desire to dissect it. However, if we want to truly gauge our success, dissect it we must. So what are some better ideas about success so we can get a better handle on our own sense of worth? Let’s explore some…
The Essence Of Success
It’s important to consider our goals with our work, like a reliable, well-plotted map. And not just about specific projects we’d like to tackle, but about the driving forces behind those projects. For instance, do we wish to express our feelings? Depict the subject more accurately? Explore different interpretations of anatomy and motion? Communicate equine nature? Raise awareness about some aspect important to us? Learn or perfect a new skill or media? Challenge some entrenched paradigms and conventions? Challenge and evolve our own perceptions? More than one goal is fine, of course, and they may change over time, too. But the important thing is to be honest to identify those goals that most compel us to keep creating especially through the rough times of self-doubt and inevitable setbacks. So if we can honestly recognize what drives us to create, to stay enthusiastic in our art, isn’t that a solid measure of success? Indeed, a firm grasp of our goals could certainly be considered a win because now we have our little fuel cell that keeps us humming along we can efficiently rev whenever we want to get our arting roaring forwards. We can also pivot much more effectively and maneuver our motivations at will. What’s more, all the accolades, prizes, prices, and whatnot seem to lose their luster as we gain a new agency, a new freedom in our choices with this independent means to measure our success. Absolutely, if our goal was to nail the tone of our colors on each of our paintjobs, who cares if it wins a blue ribbon, right? “I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free,” said Georgia O’Keeffe. If ever there was success to be measured, let that be the ruler!
Along those lines are our values, our convictions and value judgments that are akin to the readings on a compass by letting us know when we’ve veered off track from our goal. Recognizing and understanding our value system is essential for staying on-target and actually is more important than the goals themselves. Really, we can always revisit a goal, but if our value system keeps sabotaging us, we’ll keep sailing in circles. So how can we deduce our value system? Well, it comes by honestly answering more questions. Like what do we want to embody in our work? What’s our focus and why? What aspects of our subject alarm us or, conversely, give us joy? What are those things we wish to honor and those things we seek to avoid and why? How do we view our work within a larger context? Are our perceptions something we’re sure of or is advancing or clarifying our knowledge base necessary? Should we seek outlets that share our values or challenge them? How open are we to new paradigms and perceptions? Can we adopt new better information or are we resistant to change? How do we value our processes and methods? What does our art say about us as a person and as a horse enthusiast? What’s more, further education that challenges or fleshes out our values usually reveals ways to refine or even change them. It’s those who seek to expand their understanding who sail forward on the fastest winds. So—yes—there’s a lot of introspection, but that’s the point. Our value system is our artistic soul so if we don’t have a handle on that, we won’t have a handle on what we’re doing, will we? As such, we’ll eventually lose our way or get blown to the four winds without any roots. However, an artist with a solid set of values won’t create work that’s disingenuous to the subject or to themselves. They’ll create honest, authentic work according to their convictions and so come to really believe in their art, becoming its best advocate, its greatest champion. In that light, isn’t identifying and remaining true to our values in our art a great indicator of success? When we create work authentic to what we value, when we have that level of understanding, surely that’s a big win? Undeniably, creating in full awareness like this is one of the most empowering positions because it imbues our work with impact, credibility, power, and authority. If success is ever to be measured then, absolutely this should be an important metric.
Being an artist requires a plethora of self-confidence, or an independent sense of self-worth and the moxie to defend it. Without a doubt, creating something out of the ether to then display it for public review requires a ton of courage, a solid sense of perspective, a heapin’ helpin’ of gumption, and a pile of coping mechanisms. Why? Well, because people will talk and compare and, of course, point out all our artistic shortcomings rather loudly, right or wrong (often wrong). Let’s be honest here, public opinion can be a bewildering morass of conflicting aesthetics, information, and ideas that can steer us completely off course if we aren’t firmly rooted. Everyone is a critic, right? And everyone has their own idea about the nature of our work—so how relevant is all that to our goals and our values? Probably not much. (Recommended reading: The Critic In The Creative Space) If our goals and values are steadfast though we can put the running commentary into a healthy perspective or even come to ignore it all to remain true to ourselves and our art.
On that note, artistic self-confidence accepts that our work won’t appeal to everyone all the time which is essential to understand to protect our authentic creative identity. See, if we try to please everyone, we just end up diluting our Voice, don’t we? We stop taking risks, we become more reluctant to stretch ourselves, we take safe routes instead of expanding our possibilities, and our body of work will suffer for it. Never dumb down your art! Absolutely, remain true to yourself to create work with authority and power. In other words, build your boat exactly as you wish and the right people will board to join your journey—and then ignore the rest. Simply ignore them! And we do this by having a solid grasp of our goals and values and then expressing them in confidence to create firmly rooted work, then just darn those torpedoes.
What’s more, confidence also enables self-introspection that can recalibrate our creative compass without beaching our entire ship. Indeed, when we’re confident enough to question ourselves and our work, when we can rethink and re-evaluate it at will, our portfolio will become all the stronger for it. In this way, too, confidence gifts us with the ability to discern what ideas are helpful or hopeless or hurtful in the public arena that will keep us steadfastly moving towards our goals and remaining true to our values in an empowering way.
But how do we develop artistic confidence? Well, at the core of it is our artistic pivot, our creative center-point, that one force that compels us to create. Elizabeth Gilbert refers to it as always “coming home,” of always coming back to that one compulsion that lies at the center of why we’re arting in the first place despite any wild accolades or horrible failures we endure. What keeps us going as our essential baseline? And it starts and ends only with us, no one else. Our goals and values are clues to that center-point so be sure to be honest when teasing them out. Once we find that centerpoint then, we’ll discover a sense of roots, purpose, composure, and heightened awareness that maybe have eluded us before. We’ll truly know our “home” and always know how to return there no matter how far off the map we careen. Everything will simply fall into place and we’ll find our authentic voice and come to truly appreciate it for what it is with boldness, poise, and courage. This being so, our confidence will naturally bubble up because we have a firm footing and clarity in our passions, purpose, and Voice, a natural outcome. So isn’t that a great measure of success? When we’ve attained a level of composure that keeps us boldly arting forwards despite everything, that’s absolutely a huge win. So many artists lack this gift so to have it is truly a triumph!
Competition and exhibition are part and parcel of being a working artist, for better or worse. Indeed, simply debuting new work invites comparative commentary. Because—yes—everyone is a critic, all the time. Being so, people will simply impose their own values and goals on our work and that rarely jives well. They want our art to be their art, to be something that synchs with their tastes, expectations, and ideas, rarely able to truly accept our authentic Voice on its own terms, for its own sake. (Recommended reading: Pickled Art) This creates an inherent conflict when displaying our work because different tastes will then vie for authority when in all actuality, there’s only one that matters—our own. Never lose sight of that. (Recommended reading: Arting In A Bubble: An Empowering Way To Create Art) If we place inordinate emphasis on other people’s opinions then, if like Don Quixote we start chasing impossible windmills of external validation and acceptance, we’re going to end up confused, frustrated, embittered, and our Voice will have completely lost its power. We’ll go completely off the creative rails. Never become a Don Quixote! Stay your course! To that end, it’s through a firm grasp of our goals, our values, and a hefty dose of self-confidence that we remain true to ourselves and our art despite it all, even when our pieces don’t place, when it doesn’t get accepted into that juried show, or when people pepper our experience with unwelcome criticism. And when we attain that level of composure and empowerment, that degree of freedom and agency, that’s undeniably a great indicator of success. How could it not? A creatively poised artist is a powerful artist! Acting from this position of power and composure makes our art all the stronger and more authoritative and above all, more authentic and genuine, creating a legacy of work that cannot be denied. If that isn’t success, I don’t know what is!
On that note, public opinion can bite, can't it? Ouch. But the truth is that every artist, no matter how skilled and seasoned, will have a bad art day from time to time. That's just part of the arting process long game. But—wow—is the public quick to point that out! This reaction can be so catastrophic though that it can compel some artists to stop arting altogether, or at the very least, pour heapin' helpings of crippling self-doubt on their creative decisions and self-worth. However, if we have our own compass readings to pilot our creative efforts, our own independent and deeper measures of success, all this backblow begins to mean absolutely nothing as we learn to interpret it for the noise it is, not the gospel it professes to be. We know our Truth, we have a grasp on our goals, values, and confidence, and so we can put it all into a much healthier long game perspective to just get back into the studio to make more art. Hey, every new piece is your comeback, right? Because that's always—always—the best response to a bad art day: Make more art. Made a big embarrassing mistake on a piece? Big deal. Make more art. Screwed up trying to master a new media? No big whoop. Make more art. Struggling trying to perfect a new technique? Been there, done that. Make more art. You've got the play the long game! "Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art," said Andy Warhol. Absolutely spot on. Indeed, when we have this new perspective plotting our course then, inspiring us to stay enthusiastically creative despite the inevitable choppy waters, that new measure of composure is definitely a big win, isn't it? If ever there was a tried and true measure of success, especially in this brutal art form, that would be it, right? Score!
Conclusion
All artists sail their own ships and so we need to be our own stalwart Captain. In this way, developing our own sense of success lends strength, authority, and credibility to our work while also promoting its special uniqueness, and all in a way that’s courageous and composed. When we protect and nurture our own voice in this way rather than compromise it, that’s a clear testimony of success, isn’t it?
Just note that we didn’t define personal success by what color ribbon or kind of accolade or big price tag our work earned, did we? Why? Because such determiners can be superficial and often false, particularly when the standards by which works are measured may be ambiguous or conflicting. And again, that’s more chasing down people’s opinions and mercurial applause rather than standing on our own firm footing, isn’t it? Really, the more meaningful layers of success reveal themselves as we grow as an artist and come to realize our true creative selves and drives.
Likewise, notice how excelling past our peers—whatever that means—also wasn't used as a metric? Too often in art the pressures involved turn our colleagues into competitors. Not a very healthy perspective to operate from, is it? Our fellows are so much better framed as creative kin! It builds bonds and helps with our networking, avoiding awkwardness, feuds, and bad feeling altogether. Why build walls when bridges are so much better? And see, every artist struggles with their own challenges and every artist is on their own creative journey in their own time. So to use "beating" them as a means to measure our success isn't only unreliable, it's unfair to both them and ourselves, isn't it? The truth of the matter is this: We are our one and only true rival and so we should only be interested in beating ourselves. Self-betterment is the key to true success! It's said that each new piece should be our new comeback, a better version of our previous attempts, which is absolutely true. Indeed, "Each piece is practice for the next," as my friend, Ed Gonzales promotes, and he's absolutely correct. This being so, we should always be focused inwardly, not outwardly, if we truly wish to succeed in deeply meaningful ways.
Ultimately then, the more telling measures of success are those personal triumphs we achieve in our individual journey which reinforce our values, take us ever closer to our goals, and build our self-confidence, inspiring ever more joy and power in the studio with a serene sense of accomplishment. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a massive win to me!
Keep sailing towards that horizon with confidence and fearlessness then, using your authentic map and tried and true trusty readings. In this way, you won’t only find tremendous success, you'll do so with poise, authority, and conviction, definitely a win-win! Truly, when you can come to your art confidently and present it to the world empowered, what better measure of success is there than that?
“An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.”
— Charles Horton Cooley
