Being an Artist

What is a world without art?

On today's episode of  "Rantings of a Wannabe" we talk about this question and explore what it means. Can you imagine a world where there is no art? Well, I can't because I'm an artist myself. Plus, some great person said, "Earth without art is just eh!" and that, ladies and gentlemen is probably the greatest statement ever said.

STRUGGLES OF AN ARTIST:

Being an artist is very difficult. Why? Because of the inner conflicts, mostly. First of all, picking up that pen or paintbrush is super difficult. You just can't schedule the process. You need to have a motivation to start working. And finding the correct motivation as we grow up becomes super difficult. Mostly because of our busy lifestyles, assignments, college and above all, laziness. I haven't painted anything since three months, I guess. I'm the queen of procrastination land, you know.

Another problem that most of us face is the imposter syndrome. What is it? It is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their skills, talents, or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud". 

(Yeah that's right, I copied it from Wikipedia)

So, not everyone but most of us artists have this tendency to dismiss our art even though it is a really, really good piece. We try to find "hidden" mistakes and point them out. Sometimes, we keep staring at the art and watch them "turn" uglier the longer we stare at it. That's me, I do this all the time and I'm scared that my best friend will someday disown me for this!

Then there is the whole situation of not getting appreciation. Luckily, I have these people who continuously hype me up all the time. But there are several artists who cannot express themselves because there's no appreciation. Plus, they fear of getting unwanted hate over social media. Instagram algorithm sucks big time too. Your face would get 500+ likes (deserving, ofc) but the art wouldn't get more than a 100 likes. Not getting the proper validation can also demotivate potential artists.

How do we deal with these problems?

The very first thing you need to do is find the motivation or an inspiration to start. If you are a painter, you can start scrolling through art-instagram and look at those aesthetic feeds. That usually works for me. Watching some tutorial videos can help too. Looking at other people creating pretty masterpieces can get you worked up and make you open that paint bottle for real. If you write, then look for these 30 days poetry/prose prompts challenges and get started asap!

As for the imposter syndrome, you need some nagging friends (I'm kidding okay, ily guys) who can tell you to shut up and post your work. I usually send my stuff to my best friends and then launch a long monologue about how the strokes aren't perfect and how it looks so bad. They force me to post and I do it and then I throw my phone away. It's the same process everytime.

Hence, here is YOUR reminder that your art is beautiful and it needs to get posted right now! There is nothing wrong with the words or that brush stroke. It's your brain fooling you. Don't let it bring you down!

Finding appreciation, validation and increasing your reach: 

Right so, here is some technical stuff you need to deal with. As I said, Instagram algorithm sucks for us artists. And the best motivation is when you get validated for your work. So here are a few things you can do:

• Make your account public. Let everyone see and follow your art.

• Using hashtags really increases the reach. But don't use random hashtags. Use relatable ones and not more than 15 or so.

• Share your art on your story. Sometimes the feed gets really diluted and people might not come across your art. Sharing it on your story makes it more visible to people.

• Keep your posts interactive. Add a question in the caption, reply to the comments and keep that section active.

• Join a community or group chats and share your art there. Artists always support artists and these engagement groups really appreciate and validate your art.

• Post regularly, especially reels.

• And lastly, post it nonetheless because it looks great and you are awesome!

Do you know that I started writing this blog post back in june but never finished it. Until now ofcourse. So, if I can finish and publish this post after three months of procrastination, you can too!

Continue doing what you love can sometimes be hard. But never give up on your art because it is your art that makes this otherwise dull world a far better place. This is the universe sending you signals to pick that pen/brush up and put that brilliant brain to work, lessgoo!