Exposing Myself

I love doing what I do! I get paid to expose myself! Being an artist is hard, but satisfying in that my direct creative expression is getting attention and appreciation. I put part of myself, my soul, into my art, and yes, my goal has become to sell myself. I used to shudder thinking about that aspect of being a professional artist. Now, though, it feels better than working for someone else. I AM my business. It is frustrating to not get feedback and to feel ignored sometimes, but it has built my self-confidence a great deal. I believe in myself. I'm not sure anybody would recommend becoming an artist to bolster one's self-esteem, but it definitely encourages self-reliance. I have to be my own biggest fan. For me, that's big, as before now, I was my biggest critic, not cutting myself slack for mistakes and imperfections that I far overlooked in others. I still hold myself to high standards, but optimistically!

I'm realizing this on a day with little visible progress. I painted Otis Redding because I wanted to, not for a client. I added an XML sitemap to my website for search engines which already have me indexed. And I created yet another profile/gallery for a free artists' directory with no other posts in its forum since September. Yet, the more things I do to promote my online presence, my artwork, myself, the more I realize that I must consider myself worth it! I'm spending all this time on me!

This post, then, is meant to share my inspiration. Not quite an epiphany or anything too profound, just a simple acknowledgement of how lucky I am to be my own business. My ultimate goal in being an artist is to spread my idea and creativity to as many people as I can, to bring people together by communicating about our collective culture, and to live a human life. It's why we're here I think, to be humans and to be understood as the individuals that we are within humanity.

What do YOU think?

I also submitted a press release to AP.org regarding Newport Nights this October 27th at Primitive Kool in San Diego. Hopefully they'll find it suitable for distribution, but in the meantime, if you haven't:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: http://www.vinylart.info/

and see the 16 pieces that'll be on display and for sale!

Otis Redding 10/19/07