Make Art Not Seek Approval

Creating art that is your own and creating a life that fits you are two things that do not need the approval of others. In fact, seeking that approval will prove itself to be a hindrance over and over again. It is too hard a target to hit when you are guessing what will make another person happy or satisfy them. Heck, we barely know what makes us happy or how to satisfy our own needs let alone becoming all mystic meg and trying to decipher what another human being with all their foibles wants and is in need of.

 When you are making your art because you are driven to do so and because you want to explore your ideas and bring them to form, is a whole other experience than to the idea of creating an imagined idea of what another person will deem acceptable and hopefully will approve of.

 Here’s an idea for taking a whole lot of work from your plate. Forget about what another person wants when it comes to your art. Forget about other people altogether. Imagine a weird art Apocalypse where the only person around and you are set with the task to fill the world with art. Your art, for your eyes only. You will create the art; you will hang the art and you will soak in all this art you made. There will be no one looking or buying or commenting on it. In this apocalypse, not even Instagram made its way through, there are no likes, comments or DM’s heading your way. This is all just for you baby.

 So, what do you want to create, for you, in this weird art apocalyptic world you are now residing in? Go make that art, not the art that you decided from some wisp of an idea that you think other people want to see, that you think will sell, that you think will get you more likes and followers on social media channels. Where you manipulate and warp your ideas not to fit in with the seed of the idea but with a genetically modified harvest of notions that you perceived will feed the souls of others. That’s not your job. Your job is to create art.

 I know that there will be minds running amok here, what do you mean my only job is to create art. It’s not, it’s to make it and sell it and get it seen and other people have to like it or else what’s the point? How do I pay my bills if I make art that no one else likes? And all of that can be true and you can make art chasing the idea of what you think others will want to see, but the glitch in that design is you will always be chasing ideas of what you think others want you to create.

 You will abandon all the things you desire to make in favour of assumptions that you think others want to see. No one wins. Others don’t get to see art that they like, they get to see art you created that YOU thought they liked, you never asked them, you assumed. And you never get to make the art that means anything to you. That art gets left unmade. How fucking pointless and sad is that. So, the moral of this long diatribe is to make the art you actually want to make. If it is approved of, great, if it isn’t, great. If it sells and makes you money, give up the day job, if it doesn’t sell even one piece, keep doing other jobs. I am not here to tell you that if you make art all your dreams associated with making art will come true. That is not a promise I can make, not even to myself. All I can promise you is that the art that wants to be made through you and will get to be born into this world and that is all I can promise. The art that wants to be made does not seek the approval of others it just wants acceptance by you so it can take shape through you; you are the conduit through which it arises, without you it doesn’t see the light of day. It’s your approval which is being sought, not that of others.

 We are artists; we are in the business of making art not seeking approval.