So, You Call Yourself an Artist?

What happens when you introduce yourself as an artist?

Do you feel resistance or expansion?

Try it...speak the words aloud right now….”Hi, my name is ____ and I am an artist.”

What does your inner critic say about that? Are there snickers or rude noises? Notice where the statement resonates inside your body. Is it lighting up your heart center - stuck in your throat, tight in your gut, or kidneys?

What does your inner child say when you call yourself an artist? Does he/she jump up and down ready to grab the crayons or does he/she go and hide under the bed?

What does your soul say to this statement? Do you feel a calling, a longing, a contraction, or an expansion of your soul energy?

What do you and I need to do to earn the title “Artist”?

What is required for you? For many years I was held back by my personal definition that said, “An artist earns a good living by selling his/her art”. If I could not make a good living selling each piece for over $1,000 per work and if I did not produce at least 2 pieces a month then I was not worthy to call myself an “artist”, Until I could be entirely self-supporting and financially free I did not have permission to create art, nor to call myself an artist. It was an impossible goal because if I did not allow myself the time and space to learn, fail and acquire experience I could never create “saleable” art.

Think about what holds you back. What myths are you holding on to? Do you need a degree in art? Does your art have to look a certain way? Does your work need to hang in a museum? Do you need to suffer to be worthy? Do you need to create without training, effort, or struggle?

What if all you need in order to call yourself an artist is to be a person who creates things? Would that open up more freedom for you?

What if your job as an artist is to notice things and engage someone else in noticing them too?

What if your work is to be a storyteller of your own day-to-day curiosities, concerns, obsessions, and confusions as a guide to the variety and bounty of the human adventure?

Where does it say art should be limited only to serious intellectual subjects hung in galleries or museums?

What if the art we create transforms the playroom, the kitchen, the bathroom, the park, and the office into "temples” to our values?

And, if the practice of our art enhances our own self-understanding, empathy, consolation, hope, self-acceptance, and fulfillment - do we really need more than that?

Can you envision yourself better now as an artist? Are you ready to let go of those myths and limitations?

You can become anything you dream of - even an artist, at any moment.

Even if you are already comfortable owning your artistic calling, there is a way you could break through some constraints that limit your work.

Creating art that elevates the energy of your spirit is all the permission you need to claim your artistic title and power.

As a child you created art with uninhibited joy and freedom to express your inner world - that feeling is still available to you.

Please reach out to me if you are ready to ignite your imaginative capacity and expand the joy in your life. I am happy to guide and support you in answering the call of your inner artist. With light and delight,

Susan Convery