Starting a new thing – noticing the emotions that show up
Where to start? Already this morning thoughts of what I might write have been pulling my focus away from my quiet breakfast in the SAD lamp glare, from the energising wind on my daily walk, from my breath on my mat. In the shower ideas started to come together and I could feel the tangle […]
Books to inspire: Art & fear – observations on the perils (and rewards) of artmaking
In last week’s post on Acknowledging the Fear I mentioned the book Art & Fear: observations on the perils (and rewards) of artmaking. It’s such a helpful little book that I thought it deserved its own post. So here it is…
Acknowledging the Fear
Once we’ve started on our creative journeys things aren’t necessarily easy. It can be tempting to think that just because you’ve finished your BA or MA things will slot into place, that just because you’ve found the material or technique/process that excites you, the work will be made easily, that just because you’ve made the work it will find its audience. We know it’s not that simple. There are so many things that can get in the way. In this post I’m going to be looking at one of those internal barriers to a creative life running smoothly – fear – and seeing if the words of other creative people can help us to find a way to live with the fear and to find the courage to create in the way we need to.
Fear is a part of the creative life. Who doesn’t feel slightly afraid when they start a new body of work, accept a commission, take part in a big show or exhibition, talk about their work in public? The low-level anxiety that comes with the thoughts ‘can I do this?’ or ‘surely this time they’ll realise I can’t do this?’. Luckily this low-level anxiety tends to get swept away in the action of doing the work, soon we’re too far in it to be worried. But what of the fear that permeates your creative life, that causes you to feel reluctant to start on the big work, those secret big dreams you have for your own practice? How do we deal with that, because it’s that insidious fear, that lurks waiting for quiet moments to pounce, that will really kill dead your biggest ambitions for yourself.