Update #1 - Where I tentatively reach out to some new people, restart my Instagram account, and work on my 'artist mindset'

This is where I share what I’ve been up to behind the scenes to move my art career forward - the good, the bad, and the as-yet-to-be-determined. 

And we’re off! So, first things first, I want to establish The Golden Rule for this entire project:

I can only focus on the process - i.e. the bit I can control - and I have no interest in how ‘unrealistic’ I am being.

In my experience, the best bit about asking for impossible things is that sometimes people say yes. So I will be throwing caution to the wind and going for every single opportunity that seems like it might be fun, regardless of whether or not I think I’ll actually be accepted. The outcome of my endeavours is absolutely none of my business.

Now that we’ve established that, let’s move on.

I was struggling for ages to think of a good way to format these update posts so they don’t end up being super long and unwieldy, and eventually I remembered a lovely review model a colleague of mine introduced me to. It’s called Rose, Bud, Thorn - the Rose is something that went well, the Thorn is something that didn’t go so well or is challenging, and the Bud is something that is still percolating. Let’s start with that…

ROSE

This week my Rose has been the result of joining a few online artist communities - Tara Leaver’s Happy Artist Studio and Emma Carlisle’s Patreon.

One of Tara’s main principles is that being a happy artist consists of marrying process with mindset, which was music to my ears as mindset has definitely been a bit of a bugbear over the last couple of years! I’ve been working my way through her techniques and I’m feeling a lot more confident.

Emma Carlisle has been a huge help too, mostly because her incredible Patreon has actually gotten me drawing on a regular basis again. I’ve been leaning so heavily into working on canvas lately that I’d forgotten how much I love sketchbook work. I’m so happy to bring this back into my practice, and already I can see how the two disciplines are (painting and drawing) influencing each other in my work.

BUD

I took my first big, brave, bold step this week by reaching out to a local woman who runs an art collective here in Copenhagen! I know that if I want this whole project to succeed then I need to be communicating with actual real live humans IRL and I figured she’d be bound to be connected to the local art scene.

I sent her a DM on Instagram, so I also had to reactivate and update my old art Instagram profile so if she checked me out I would look at least semi-legit. It felt good to share some new stuff, and also prompted me to start following new people, commenting on posts and making some more fledgling connections.

THORN

Urgh - confidence has been a tricky one for me this week! I’ve gotten very comfortable with being online over the course of the pandemic, and existing in only two-dimensions. I’ve sort of forgotten how to have a third-dimension and deal with people in the real world. I know I’ll get used to it again, but right now it’s TERRIFYING!! Wish me luck!