Yesterday, Eric and I went on a date and part of that was going to a lecture given by Mikey Burton (here's his website). He's a designy illustrator who does NOT work for free and creates a lot of fresh, adorable work.
Eric and I do NOT aspire to be graphic designers but as artists we related to the message he was trying to get into our heads. He said multiple things but ended with "make work that you wanna make, and be patient & focus on your craft". Many of his ideas he fleshed out solely because he was deeply invested in them, not because he knew he would make money or be successful through it while still attributing value to his work and not taking a "resume-builder" for payment.
He made me realize that what is important is the reason you started doing something. A friend of ours, at the last NC Diggs Deeper event, asked why we all had started dancing in the first place. He said, "People say, 'Because I love to dance' but the real answer is that it's fun". The reason people are truly passionate about anything is because they enjoy how fun it is. I love to create visually because it's fun. It's fun to put pen to paper, move to sounds, sing words and melodies. I don't do these things to make money. I'm trying to do that with them but that's not WHY I do them.
As artists, we have to stay grounded. Not only in our minds, but in reality. We have to remember why we do this in the first place and that what we do DOES have value. What we do is not for free, to be taken advantage of, to be stepped on and stolen from what we have worked so hard to create. What we do is to be treasured. Not just by others but by ourselves.
xxx
Beth
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