Traveling to Sarasota meant traveling with Elizabeth Gilbert, the writer of ‘The Big Magic”. A four hour delay gave me the chance to read. She writes about how to live a creative life without fear. The fear is about not being good enough, not talented enough, not having what it takes to be creative.
Elizabeth and I agree that working in the arts requires a foundation of daily discipline and building skills. Relentless. Without the hope of ever becoming famous or rich.
You have to be a little weird to pursue something that takes up your energy, time and money without any return on investment. It is called passion.
I wish I would have known that when I was eighteen. My thinking was that when I would work hard, do what the experts tell me, give it everything I have, success was assured. My upbringing taught me to go to school and then work in the field of choice the rest of your life, getting better by the day with increasing monetary rewards.
Creative living is stranger than other, more worldly pursuits. Little did I know there is no job security in creativity. I thought I was a failure not being able to live from my art. For ten years this was my only source of income. Not bad. I learned to live a rich and frugal life.
Then again, my choice of sticking to the arts, brought me to a life on a tropical island, sailing on the Atlantic and many other unexpected highlights.
I worked for ten years on creating a foundation of multiple sources of income to secure a better standard of living other than being homeless. Today I don’t have to be stressed out when people come and visit my gallery without any intention to buy. Stress is a dead sentence for creativity. I finally figured it out.
Here is a tour of my studio, https://vimeo.com/931512569?share=copy
Northlight studio’s, 357 Depot street, Asheville
