Letter #3-1
Dear Artist,
How do you plan on surviving this pandemic? I’m not talking about your health, when a person’s days are up they are up, my question is how are you going to continue to be a self supporting artist during a time when so many are barely getting by? The world is facing economic pitfalls sending art collectors into hibernation. Will your art career be able to withstand what you are facing?
Art is important. The world can be crumbling around us but history has shown that art can withstand even the darkest of events. Here are the things that kept me going even when I believed my art career was in jeopardy:
-
Keep making art
-
Assign a time period 5 days a week to produce
-
Make more personalized statements
-
Take bigger risks with my creations
-
Finding a way to show my work
-
Establish a temporary supplemental source of income, if needed
Choose the most successful artists of all time and look into his or her history. Jean-Michel Basquiat struggled repeatedly in his career. Pablo Picasso also repeated times that he had to regroup and try another approach. If you were created to make art don’t stop just because it has gotten hard.
Life can be hard. But reality is that it can and will be hard for most people. Look to your chosen artist and steal from his/her experiences before you. Be like Picasso, not the person, the manipulator, and womanizer, but be like the painter and show resolve and stamina. He painted
For inspiration, HERE are a small body of Picasso’s self portraits that he created from the age 15 to 90 years old. His diverse style and unique approaches are a wealth of ideas to consider. If this artist can see himself in so many forms, then you can see yourself making it through these hard times. Picasso lived through the great depression and multiple world wars. He never stopped making art!
Find a way to produce, even if you are just keeping your ideas in a small journal. You can come back to these ideas and explore them further when life gets less messy. Keep thinking, keep making, keep being the artist that you were born to be.
With faith in making art,
Uncle Salvador
