Game changes, same rules apply.

This post is all about changing games and having the same rule still apply. When I first started creating art and I wanted to share it, over 20 years ago, the game was completely different. There were exhibitions that you needed agents to get into. You would submit work to be exhibited but there was a panel process of approving it; you would take a picture of your artwork make into a glass slide and then send it off in a Self Addressed Envelope for submission purposes and then two weeks later in the post, receive a yes or no.

 The whole process was completely different to what it is now. Fast forward 20 years and we have social media and all these free platforms we can share our work on and share our process including selling our work and in essence all gatekeepers have been removed. So there isn't you, a gatekeeper and then sharing or selling your artwork, now it is just you creating your artwork, sharing it and selling it, which is phenomenal. I absolutely love the fact that is opened up the arena for everyone to have a go and play in, but when I was thinking about it, I realised that the rules of the game still apply. The methods I employed 20 years ago to create art are no different to the application of them today. Whatever scenery is playing in the background and whatever the cultural moment of the time we're living in, three things remain exactly the same.  Show up, make the art, be consistent.

 Don't have a practise that shows you creating art on Sunday once every 6-7 weeks and then saying, I don't know why my art isn't evolving; it's because the time hasn't been given to the art practise. Be consistent with it and I'm not saying you have to dedicate a whole day to it, but if you've only got half an hour a day then for half an hour a day commit to creating art, your skill set will never improve if you don't dedicate some time to it, even if it's 15 minutes a day then let it be 15 minutes a day.

There's no better time to share the work because  all these free platforms exist to share in. You don't have to now take a picture of your work and spend money on creating slides and using self addressed envelopes, posting them out and waiting for them to come back. Yet, in terms of creating work,  the same things are still having to occur and I imagine if you were an artist 100 years ago the same rules applied; you make the art you show up consistently to make the art and you share the art in whichever form or medium that takes and it would have been a cave painting years ago and 20 years ago it was glass slide in a projector and today it's your iPhone taking the picture and putting it on Instagram.  If it's art you want to create; create art consistently and then share it and see what happens.