In the studio the other day I was thinking about what makes artists fearful. Humans are by nature fearful; not always of immediate danger, but, as the one creature who looks forward in time, we can imagine dangers in the future. From worrying about wild animals or food shortage, the health and well being of family members to more vague fears of distant storm clouds, humans are inherently afraid at some level.

Artists develop their own fears beyond the human basics. Some are shaped by insecurity; ‘Is it good enough?’, ‘can I make the brush do what I want?’ or distilled to ‘am I a fake?’ Only the most self-assured artist might avoid the insecurity fears as they dive into arrogance.

Are we afraid of not being able to do all the work one envisions? not getting, keeping or not finding ‘it’? The fears can sometimes get in between the artist and the art. One need not dwell on one’s artistic fears but recognize them for what they are. We need to be able to move forward, realizing that fears may be sitting on your shoulders but not letting them weigh you down.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 7th, 2007 at 8:22 am and is filed under Artists Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.