You win, I lose!

As creative artists we have been trained to see things in a particular way which is if you win, then I lose.

We either get the publishing or recording contract or we get rejected.

We either get the gallery show or it goes to some other artist

We either get the sale, or we don’t

In this type of world, it’s fairly easy to see who are the winners and losers of this game.  Everyone is in competition with everyone else.  Everyone else’s win becomes our loss.  If they succeed, then we fail.

We watch as all of these other artists on Twitter and Facebook announce their latest gallery showing, sale, or publication and sometimes we can’t help but cringe inwardly because we know it means that it is yet another opportunity we have lost.

We can’t help but keep score in our head, and eventually we begin to measure our self-worth as an artist by it.

We’re afraid…

We’re afraid that these other artists are not only going to steal our ideas, but ultimately our paying customers as well

I’m certainly not going to sit here and pretend that I’m immune to these petty feelings of jealousy.  Those of you who have been hanging around these parts long enough know that I wrote an entire post about artist envy and beating the green-eyed bastard that certainly doesn’t paint me in the prettiest light.  I’ve also written frequently about the futile quest to keep the content scrapers and ne’er-do-wells from stealing your creative work online.

In fact, if one was foolish enough to actually go back and search through the Skinny archives, I would bet there are probably a half a dozen posts that deal directly with my own sense of professional inadequacy and fear of competition (and those are just the ones I’ve published!)

The more time that I spend online, however, the more I am beginning to realize that perhaps I have been looking at this from the wrong perspective.

There is no spoon.

Perhaps we have simply been asking the wrong questions.

Those of you who watch metaphorical and somewhat shlocky science fiction films may remember the film “The Matrix” that was released in 1999.  In the movie, the main character is forced to see the world around him from an entirely new perspective.  At one point in the movie the main character Neo is trying to bend a spoon with the power of his mind.

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead… only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Spoon boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Spoon boy: Then you’ll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

In other words it all comes down to changing your perspective and the way you see things. The world doesn’t change just because we want it to bend to our will.  The world changes when we are able to alter our perception of it.

It’s a leap of faith.

There is no spoon and ultimately there are no other competitors for your creative work

The idea of you competing with another artist is simply a flawed way of looking at things.

The online art world is not a zero-sum game where if someone else wins, you lose.

There is a matrix or web of connections that runs through every online community.  Simply by being online we have joined this massive community and have become connected in some way to one another.  Every day we can choose to either strengthen these connections or weaken them.  We can build those relationships, or we can neglect them.  We can embrace them or we can fear them.

For example, if we introduce Artist A to Buyer B and Buyer B ends up purchasing Artist A’s work, then both of them are happy because they each got what they wanted.   I know what you’re thinking, well that’s great for them, but what about me?  I’m the one who introduced them and I’m the only one who didn’t benefit from the deal, shouldn’t I at least get finders fee or something?

Here’s where it gets interesting, though.  Remember you are the one who introduced Artist A to Buyer B, so chances are Artist A likes you at this point and Buyer B is going to think that you are well connected and have your fingers on the pulse of the arts community.  In other words, both of them are likely to become your personal ambassadors and start telling everyone just how awesome you are.  So maybe you didn’t get the sale, but you got something potentially even more valuable, which is their friendship and respect.

You can bet the next time Artist A talks with someone who is looking for a piece of art, a certain song, or a manuscript that matches your particular writing style — your name will probably be at the top of the list.  The same holds true for Buyer B as well……

This is the power of making connections and building relationships that have nothing to do with making your next sale.  It’s all about offering something of value to someone else, whether it is a referral, praise for their latest work, or simply a word of encouragement. There’s nothing calculated or mechanical about this — it’s simply what friends do for one another.

In other words, there are no other artists, there are only friends

Once you recognize this, you will discover that it is not everyone else who has changed, it is only yourself.

Welcome to the real world…..

Here are some other articles you might enjoy:

1. How to Create (and destroy) your Reputation Online as an Artist!
2. Parting with your Art
3. Introducing Skinny WordPress!

Copyright is Not the Problem, You Are!

by: Cory Huff

Pinterest is upon us!

For some reason, the Internet decided to throw a giant fit over copyright over the last few weeks. It started (sort’ve) with this interesting blog post by a lawyer who tearfully deleted her Pinterest inspiration boards. Her post spread like wildfire, got picked up by a whole bunch of major blogs, and even garnered a personal response from the founder of Pinterest. Of course, her post isn’t the only one. There have been hundreds of articles written about Pinterest’s copyright issues.

Here’s the thing – this issue is not new. Pinterest is just the latest round of copyright and privacy issues on the Internet. The same thing has happened with Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, various blogs, and other online media. Remember burning CDs? My favorite example, however…

The Music Industry

In 1999, Napster rocked the music world by becoming the first highly successful file sharing site. Millions of people began using Napster to share files, and some of them were using Napster to illegally swap music. The music industry leaders freaked out and spent millions of dollars going after individuals who downloaded music, making examaples out of them. This led to countless ridiculous stories about children and elderly women being imprisoned and slapped with terrifyingly high fines.

This did nothing to curb the decline of the music industry. People continued to download music and share files with each other. The music industry spent millions more lobbying and got the Digital Millenium Copyright Act passed. Suddenly small websites were getting nailed for doing innocuous things like linking to another website that was illegally hosting a copy written song. It’s still going on, and it’s a legal nightmare.

In the mean while, along comes Steve Jobs and Apple. This next part is really important, so pay attention. It’s detailed in Jobs’ biography, and it’s just fascinating. While the music industry was busy arguing about who was at fault for declining revenues, and suing everyone, Apple invented iTunes and stole everyone’s lunch money. They found a way to get people to pay for what they had been doing illegally. While the music labels said it couldn’t be done, Apple went out and did it. They were looking for a solution, not a problem.

Copyright Will Not Make Your Career

Here’s the part where I explain why I’m talking about the music industry. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, the art world is in a very similar place to where the music industry was back in 1999.

People are sharing images online – without your permission. It’s happening, whether you like it or not. Sure, it would be great if you could stop anyone who tries from profiting off of your work – but that’s not my point here.

There are some artists who don’t even worry about copyright. Check out painter Gwenn Seemel’s take on art careers without copyright law.

Sharing is What Makes the Internet Work

The Web gave people the ability to share images easily. That’s why there are thousands of image sharing sites like Flickr and SmugMug. People want to share images that excite and motivate them. Sharing is how the internet works. We link to things that we find interesting. We talk about it on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Personally, it’s one of the best things about the Web.

If I can find a piece of art that I like, I don’t just bookmark it. I want to subscribe to their blog, follow them on Twitter, and tell everyone else about their work. If the artist is smart, they’ve added some sharing buttons to each of their individual pieces. This is how people build buzz about what they do. It’s how the Internet has changed things.

Where’s the Disruption?

You can protect your work if it’s that important. Add a watermark to your images. Reduce the resolution to 75 dpi. But don’t disable right clicks. That’s just annoying (and you can just take a screenshot anyway).

There are several companies that are doing very innovative things with art on the Internet. Art.sy is interesting. ArtSumo is surfacing art from obscure places. Artsicle lets you try art in your home before you buy it.

Technology is not the only way to disrupt a market. You can change the way that you sell art. One of the early bands to recognize the change in the way that that the music business was heading is Radiohead. They began offering their music as a pay what you will download from their own website. They did an end run around their music label and it worked.

What will you do? Can you start selling directly to collectors? Will you find an innovative way to offer prints? Build your own social networks built around your art?

I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments.

Cory Huff runs TheAbundantArtist.com, where he teaches artists how to sell art online and dispel the myth of the starving artist.

Image courtesy of Horia Varlan

Here are some other articles you might enjoy:

1. What the #$@% is a Creative Commons License? [Video]
2. Stop stealing my sh*t!
3. Introducing Skinny WordPress!

So what happened?!

Do you remember when you just loved to create?

Do you remember that feeling of being lost inside your imagination while the rest of the world dropped away?

When exactly did you lose that?

When did creating your art become something less than it was supposed to be?

As creative artists, we all go through those inevitable swings of excitement and loathing, expansion and contraction, that feeling of taking it to the next level as well as those moments when we’re simply trying to amuse ourselves as we wander aimlessly on our creative plateaus.

As this new year begins, I know that many of us are trying to reconnect and rededicate ourselves to our art and our creative passion. Those of you who have followed Skinny Artist for awhile are well aware of my previous struggles with keeping New Year’s resolutions.  I think, however, that no matter what time of year it is, there will always be those times when we hit that proverbial wall and we utter those dreaded words of despair that every creative artist has said at some point in their career –“What’s the point?”

So how do we go back?

How do we return to our artistic innocence?  How do we reconnect with that small creative child inside of us that doesn’t constantly judge our worthiness or compare our work to others?  How do we replenish that creative fire that has been smothered by years of doubt, fears, and neglect?

5 Ways to Rekindle your Creative Fire

1.) Feed your creative soul

You need to regularly replenish your creative well by absorbing the work of those artists around you.

Sure maybe you’ll have moments of self-loathing and feelings of inadequacy along the way as you absorb the masterworks of your genre, but these will also serve as a guidepost that can help to steer you in the right direction and may even help to unlock some creative impulse buried deep within you. Maybe you were drawn to these particular works for a reason.  Not to imitate them, but perhaps to simply show you a little farther down your chosen path. 

If you are a writer, you need to read great books.  You need to surround yourself and assimilate their words and ideas.  Resist the urge to judge their work as being superior or inferior to your own, and don’t beat yourself up for not being the first person to come up with that one “perfect idea”.   Remember that it’s all been said before, the importance lies not in the story but in the voice by which it’s told.

If you’re a photographer or visual artist, you need to allow your eyes to take in as much art as you possibly can.  You need to find a way to see things from a new perspective and feed yourself those images that you’ll later play with and reconstruct inside your own imagination.

Finally, try to take some time each day to get outside and experience the lessons of the world’s ultimate creative classroom.

2.) Control your environment and distractions

We live in an age of distraction.

The fact that we are now able to carry a telephone, movie theater, instant messenger, arcade, and a television in our pocket — it should come as no surprise that most of us are more distracted than ever.  Everywhere we go, we are always connected.

Creativity demands, at least to some degree, a certain amount of empty space. We need to find a way to give our imagination that blank creative canvas where it can experiment, reconnect, and play around with all of those images and ideas that we have absorbed from the world around us.

This is something that I have struggled with myself.  Finding that elusive balance between connecting with other artists online while still carving out some personal space to allow my creative imagination to roam free.

Sometimes I find it useful to keep a time journal for several days to see exactly how I’m spending all of my time each day.  Having this information then gives me the ability to prioritize and make any changes necessary.  Unfortunately, I tend to be a “look-at-the-shiny-object” kind of guy so personally I’ve had to resort to some rather extreme measures in order to keep myself focused.  Hopefully this won’t be the case for you.

The only other piece of advice I could offer here would be to set a reasonable schedule for yourself and don’t beat yourself up when you don’t achieve everything on your list.  Sure I’d love to be able to sleep four hours and get everything done on my to-do list before 9:00 am, but that’s just not very realistic.  Many of us are juggling family and financial responsibilities so we aren’t always able to experience that ideal creative artist lifestyle.

Above all, be kind and forgive yourself for not always being able to live up to your own high expectations.

3.) Do some small creative act every day

Anyone who has tried to get up in the morning and go to the gym at 6:00 a.m. knows that momentum can be a powerful thing. Newton was right (of course) when he stated that a object at rest will stay at rest, while an object in motion will tend to stay in motion.

This is why it’s so important to find a way to do at least one thing everyday that will exercise your creative muscles.

Maybe you can take fifteen minutes to make a sketch and post it to the #Draw365 group on Twitter.  If you’re a writer, make a point to sit down and just write for twenty minutes every day.  It doesn’t even have to be part of a larger project.  It can simply be about what’s on your mind or maybe a new idea that you would like to explore.  Julia Cameron calls this her “Morning Pages” in her book “The Artist’s Way”  If you’re a photographer you could challenge yourself to take 20 pictures in 20 minutes and then share your favorite one on your Flickr Photostream.  If you’re a musician or poet, take some time to write down that musical fragment or lyrical phrase you’ve been noodling around with and post it to your blog or on SoundCloud

The point here is not to create something magnificent, but to simply create something every day and to leave some type of record of it that you can return to later.  I think eventually you’ll find that it becomes a positive feedback loop as other artists begin to comment and respond to your work.

I know it’s hard to find the time.

As I’ve said before, most of us have less than ideal situations for creating our art. We have full-time jobs, we have kids that need to be fed on a regular basis, we have partners who may want us to crawl out of our den or studio once in awhile. It’s not always easy, but at the same time, we need to find a way to carve 20-30 minutes out of our day to exercise our creative muscles and create that momentum to keep us moving forward.

I know that sometimes during a creative drought you may feel like you’re simply going through the motions.  We’ve all been there and these are the times when we are tempted to give up and stop wasting our time.

You have to remember, however, that no creative effort is ever wasted

Creativity builds upon itself. Even those times when it may seem as if we’re just spinning our wheels, we are quietly building the foundation for future progress.  Since we cannot see very far down our creative path, we sometimes have to move forward on faith and be willing to put in the work necessary to grow creatively.

4.) Find your community

Although we may create in solitude, we also thrive creatively by having the support of those who understand us the best.  This is why it’s important to find those kindred creative spirits to share our hopes, our struggles, our dreams, our fears, as well as our triumphs. We need to find our community  – those who will support and nurture us along the way.

Depending on where you live, you may find your community nearby at a local art school, community center, or even the local Starbucks.  If you cannot find your tribe around your neighborhood, chances are you’ll be able to connect with them online.

Think about joining online social communities such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr groups, DeviantArt forum, and Google+ communities.  If you’re not sure which one is right for you, I would suggest simply hanging around them a bit and see what’s going on.  Each of these online communities has it’s own unique culture.  See where your current friends hang out.  Try them out for awhile and see what feels right to you.

Also don’t be afraid to open up an account and try things out for awhile.  Later if things just don’t feel right, you can always go somewhere else.  Don’t ever feel like you have to keep at it just because you now have 500 followers on Twitter.  If it starts to feel like a chore, take a break. You can always come back to it weeks or even months later.

Wherever you decide to hang out, be sure that you allow yourself to occasionally open up and be vulnerable.  Just like in the real world, people want to connect with real people not some fake super-confident version of yourself.  As I’ve said before, there’s a reason that Superman hangs out with himself at the fortress of solitude.  I mean, who wants to hang with Mr. Perfect?

Just be yourself and remember that you’re not there to sell your yourself as an artist, you’re there for the support and friendship that comes from being around other writers, artists, and musicians who are going through many of the same things you are.

If you’re not sure where to start, you can always get started by connecting with some of the amazing artist and commmunity members in our very own online artist directory

5.) Experiment, expand, and don’t look back

Finally, don’t be afraid to experiment and try something new.

Creativity is all about seeing things from a new perspective.  It may sound like a bit of a cliche but it’s true that no one has ever seen the world the same way that you do. Find a way to share your unique perspective with the rest of us.  Remember that we are all here stumbling our way through trying to find our individual voice.

Also never be afraid to start over. Allow yourself from time to time to return to your artistic innocence and see your art through the eyes of a beginner.  Don’t allow your past to dictate your future path.  It doesn’t matter if you’ve already sunk twenty or thirty years into a particular discipline, if it no longer nourishes your creative soul, you need to let it go and head in a new direction.

Expand and resist defining yourself as an artist.

It seems like these days so many creative artists have managed to bury themselves so deeply into their niche and they can no longer find their way out.

Don’t ever limit yourself by defining who you think you are as an artist.  Resist labels.  Follow your creative path wherever it may lead you even if it means letting go of the comfort of the familiar.

Use every tool in your arsenal to explore your creative soul.  Try to push yourself a little further each day into unfamiliar territory. Embrace the discomfort that comes from setting yourself apart from others.

Expand, explore, and enjoy!

How do you motivate yourself to keep moving forward when things are rough?

What kind of things do you do to get those creative juices flowing again?

How do you feed your creative soul?

Here are some other articles you might enjoy:

1. 5 Ways to Boost your Creative Productivity
2. Turn Off Facebook, Tune Out Twitter, and Rediscover Your Life

You’ve got more #$@% mail!

Those of you who have been online long enough may remember when getting email was an exciting event.

We all loved hearing that bossy little AOL voice telling us that we got mail.  Our pulse would quicken and we would race to our email inbox to see what technological treasures awaited us.  And even though most of us were still paying by the minute, we never wanted to log off our super speedy 56k dial-up modem connection because we didn’t want to risk missing out on our next email message.

Yes, perhaps we were young and a bit naive as we were opening up our forty-third email asking us to help our rich Nigerian friend transfer money to his bank account, but at the same time we were excited to be a part of this new technology.  We were on the cutting edge and we scoffed at our old-fashioned friends who were still licking stamps and using old-fashioned “snail mail”.

Even today, most of us still respond to the email “ding” like some deranged Pavlovian dog hoping that this time we’ll receive some email that actually isn’t an advertisement for diet pills and male enhancement.

Introducing the Email Inbox from hell!

These days, however, it seems that everyone and their brother-in-law wants your email address.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s a website, Taco Bell, or the local gas station — everyone wants you to sign up for their email mailing list (yes, even us).

So when did all this happen?  When did everyone suddenly need your email address before they can ring up your hand towels at Bed, Bath, & Beyond — And why do they all give you that look as if you are some kind of Luddite Hobbit when you tell them that you’d rather not share it with them?

Enough!

I say it’s time that we rise up and revolt against stupid email ads and useless 5% off coupons.  I say enough of your pointless surveys, enough of your colorful coupons that cost $15 in ink for my printer to print out, and don’t even get me started on the dozens of #@$! loyalty cards that are currently jammed into my wallet.

It’s gotten so bad that I’ve actually set up additional email addresses just for this sort of thing, hoping to somehow separate some of this gratuitous marketing crap from all of the other useless email crap that I was already receiving — but this turned out to be pointless as well. In the end, it didn’t actually cut down on the number of messages I received, it just sorted them into various smaller containers that I still had to deal with.  Even after all that, I would still find myself sorting them out, creating pointless folders, and deleting email messages for what sometimes seemed like hours on end.

So now what?

I’ve already talked about in an earlier article about how I’ve had to schedule a Twitter and Facebook-Free sabbatical from time to time just to maintain what little sanity I have left.  So what about taking email free days on a regular basis? What if we could actually take a break from email and then come back to it later?

Egads, was this even possible?!?

I have to admit that I felt a little uneasy even talking about it at first.

Taming the Email Beast!

All of this actually evolved from one of the problems that I ran into early on with my Twitter and Facebook-free days experiment.  It was the fact that even when I wasn’t actually visiting these sites, I was still checking my email on those days and whenever I received an email about someone mentioning us on Twitter or our Facebook page I felt compelled to respond to it.  After all, what kind of thoughtless bastard doesn’t respond to being tagged on Facebook?!

So of course I would tell myself that I would just log on for a moment to respond or to follow back a new follower.  The problem of course, is that once you open the time sucking Pandora box that is Twitter and Facebook, you are hooked.

This clearly wasn’t working so I figured if I was really going to do this, I had two options.  I could either turn off the email notifications for all of these social networking sites, or I could simply not check my email at all during these “off” days.  Well being the control freak perfectionist that I am, I knew that turning off the email notifications wasn’t really an option so I finally came to the sad conclusion that the only way this was actually going to work, was for me to turn off my internet connection all together when I was writing.

There is no such thing as an Emergency Email!

What I’ve discovered is that it actually is possible once you accept the fact that there is no such thing as an emergency email (at least not in my world) — Let’s face it, if there’s ever a real emergency, you better get me on the phone because I’m never going to find your desperate emailed plea for help buried between the Barnes & Noble newsletters and the countless Chipotle coupons that litter my inbox.

Now I realize that the thought of email free days are perhaps a little hardcore for some and to each their own but even on the days that I do check my email now, I do it completely different.

Quick quiz: What’s the first thing you do in the morning when you turn on your computer?

You check your email right?

Me to…. or at least I used to

What would happen is that I would open my email first thing in the morning, try to sort through all of the flotsam and jetsam floating around in my inbox, and look for things that really mattered. I would skim, and open, and delete, and skim, and open, and then delete some more

Before I knew it, it was often lunchtime and all I had accomplished so far that day was to tidy up my email inbox.

That’s when it dawned on me.  It doesn’t have to be tidied up.  I don’t have to meticulously go through each and every message and either put it into it’s little folder or delete it to keep those messages from piling up in hopes of someday getting down to that mythical “inbox zero”

Screw it!

I decided that my day of email liberation had come!

Since I’ve been experimenting with this over the last six months, I’ve discovered that I can now sort through my email inbox in less than 5 minutes a day because all I’m doing is scanning for those few messages that actually need a response.  I’m not wasting any more of my life sorting, organizing, or even deleting the rest of them. They can just sit there with their glowing little “unread” icons until I’m ready to deal with them.

Now I have to warn you that this isn’t for the faint of heart.  This is hardcore my friend.  This is only a last resort for those of you who are sick and tired of spending countless hours of your day sorting through piles of spam and useless crap in order to get to the one or two messages that might mean something to you.

So for what it’s worth, here it is. . .

7 Steps to Freeing Yourself from the Email Inbox Beast:

1.) Create one place for email beast to live

Just like any other wild beast if you don’t properly cage it, you can expect it to eventually attack you

The first step is to get your email off your cell phone and only access it from your computer.  Don’t worry, if there’s ever an actual emergency, your family and friends can text you, or believe it or not, make a phone call and speak with you directly.

2.) Stop giving out your email address to stores or anyone else you don’t really care to hear from

This includes both Radio Shack, Olive Garden, and crazy Uncle Charlie who insists on forwarding every joke and piece of internet humor that crosses his desk. (Note: this does not include any websites that starts with “Skinny” and ends in “Artist”)

3.) Only open your email program once a day (preferably in the evening)

This is one of the few idea from those time management gurus called “time batching” that I actually find useful.  Instead of starting your day off trying to sort through your daily pile of spam or pecking at it periodically throughout the day like some neurotic chicken,  you simply check it once per day (usually in the evening or after lunch when you would usually be checking your Facebook page anyway).

4.) Quickly scan your messages and only open the ones that you need (or want) to respond to

Just scan, click, and respond.  Do not go back to open or delete the rest of your messages because that will just suck up more of your precious time

5.) Let the unopened messages pile up and wear them like a badge of honor

You have to realize going into this that the unread emails will keep piling up in your inbox so brace yourself!

Looking at this actual screenshot of my email inbox at the moment you can see that I currently have 11,732 unopened emails.

Holy crap! Did he just say that he had 11,732 unread messages? . . . why yes, yes he did.

Now before you pass out or pass judgment on me for being a bad person, you have to realize that I have already sorted out and responded to the .005% of these messages that actually required my attention — the rest I allow to live peacefully on the Google servers completely unaware that their day of reckoning and mass extinction will soon come.

In fact you can even proclaim your email independence with the Twitter hashtag #InboxInfinity and let the rest of us know how many unread email messages you are up to!

6.) Mass extinction day

Once every six months (or even once a year if you’re really hardcore) spend an evening killing useless email

This can be a joyful celebration (usually includes a drink or two)  It turns out that sorting through spam and useless 5% off store coupons is great for resolving any built-up technological anger issues.

Go through each email box one by one, starting with the one with the most unread messages and then just start deleting.  I’ll usually scan through them quickly just to see if I missed anything important (without opening them of course) and then it’s just delete, delete, delete — Bwahahahahaha!

This might also be a good time to unsubscribe to anything that has invaded your email inbox or outlived its welcome

7.) Rinse, Repeat, and Revel in your email independence (viva la revolution!)

Take a moment to bask in your rebel glory.

How do you keep your email inbox from taking over your life?

• How do you manage to keep up with all of your email?
• How many email addresses do you have?
• How many times a day do you check your email?

Here are some other articles you might enjoy:

1. Turn Off Facebook, Tune Out Twitter, and Rediscover Your Life
2. The Goal of Nothing & the Art of Letting Go

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” ~Lao Tzu

Let’s face it, having goals kind of sucks!

What do you want to do, be, or have in ten years?  Where do you see yourself in twenty years?  What are your three major goals for this year?  What are you going to accomplish this month? What about this week? And if you’ve got a list of goals as long as your arm, why are you sitting around reading stupid articles like this?! (wait…forget that last one)

I’m sorry but when did accomplishing anything become so damn complicated?

These days it seems that if we haven’t created our yearly, monthly, and weekly goals and shared them with the universe — then we might as well be spending our day living in a mud hut digging in the dirt with a pointy stick because our life is obviously being wasted.

It doesn’t stop there, however, because it’s not enough to simply have these goals, we also need to write them down, set firm deadlines, visualize our goals, and then say them out loud every morning as some kind of karmic affirmation to the universe.

At some point along the way, it seems that we’ve all been brainwashed into believing that if you want to make anything out of your life, you need to come up with this grocery list of goals for yourself and then slavishly “work the plan” everyday.  If we don’t, we’re told that we will simply float aimlessly around the universe and end up living with our mother when we are forty-five.

Goals are good.

After all, without a goal how could you possibly expect to get to where you want to be?

So what’s the problem with having goals?

There have always been a few things that have bothered me about this idea of creating these long elaborate lists of goals for ourselves.

Goals are mostly about the illusion of control.

We live in an age that praises self-reliance. We’re taught that we are the masters of our fate and we are the captain of our soul.  Those who rely upon others to help them are either slackers or children.  In our society, we are not only expected to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, but we are taught to revere the “self-made” man or else be seen as some kind of liberal commie socialist bastard

But are we really in control?

It seems to me that we continue to create these goals for ourselves because we’re under the impression that we are completely in control of what happens to us.

Now hold on, before you go running off to your goal-setting anonymous meeting to tell them about the crazy Skinny dude spouting heresies online — I’m ceretainly not implying that we are somehow being controlled by some mysterious unforeseen force, or that we are mere puppets in fate’s fickle hand. It turns out that I don’t believe in resigning myself to fate any more than I believe in the magical power of setting goals.

It’s not that goals are bad, it’s just that shit happens and plans change. . .

Unforeseen events (both good and bad) happen all the time in our life  that will inevitably alter our course. I’m talking about things that we could have never seen coming even with all of our charts, maps, and life plans laid carefully out in front of us. 

The real problem is that if we become so focused on keeping our head down and making our initial goals happen no matter what, we’ll often miss a new opportunity that may be sitting there directly in front of us.

So the way I see it, we have two choices — We can either keep pounding away insisting that we always know what’s best, or we can consider opening ourselves up to these new opportunities as they present themselves. There are hundreds of different ways to get from point A to point B and if you spend all of this time and energy drawing up a nice looking map, chances are that you will be far more reluctant to change course when things go awry.

Goals set you up to fail

Everyone knows that whenever you set up a goal for yourself, you are required to create monthly, weekly, and daily action steps to achieve this goal. That’s basic goal-setting 101

However there’s always that one step that you really don’t want to do, or you don’t know how to do, so you just keep putting it off.  Soon your weekly goals fall behind schedule which means that your monthly goals are continually being pushed back and sooner or later you realize that you have created this endless treadmill of failure for yourself.

Sooner or later we begin to realize that all of these daily to-do lists that are constantly being consolidated day after day are really only effective as a tool of self-hatred.  They breed an environment of constant stress and a sense of failure which is the enemy of creative productivity 

Now of course all of the goal setting gurus tell us that failure is not an option.  Actually it turns out that failure is an option.  If nothing else, failure give you the chance to stop, look around, and possibly reassess your current goals.

What you may realize is that maybe you were really close to achieving your goal, or maybes you were completely off base.  Either way you can see it as a learning opportunity, but only if you are willing to reconsider the goal you were chasing in the first place.

Some people believe that failure is simply the universe’s way of nudging you in a slightly different direction.  It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to give up, but perhaps you might consider slightly altering your course.  But here’s the thing, when it comes down to it, very few of us really know what it is that we really want let alone how exactly we are going to get it.

Who’s goals are these anyway?

It’s also not unusual that the goals we chase after the hardest aren’t really even our goals to begin with.

Remember that most of these goals that we are beating ourselves up over, are often the expectations of others.  We have these goals because they are the things that our parents, our friends, our spouse, or our society expects us to do. When you sit down and really think about it, how many of your past and current goals are simply unconscious echoes of other people’s expectations?

For example , I remember wanting to be a writer for as long as I can remember. However, as everyone knows or at least told me growing up, no responsible adult can make a living as a writer (which so far is apparently true) so it was decided that I should get my teaching degree so that I could be an upstanding citizen and still have my little writing hobby on the side.

Sometimes the best goal is not having one

When was the last time that “success” arrived for you or anyone else you know exactly the way you imagined that it would?

Even if you do want to achieve something specific.  It rarely if ever happens exactly as you think it would.  In other words, even if the end result is the same, the method of getting there is often light-years apart from the well-thought out step-by-step monthly plan that you meticulously came up with five years ago.

Setting goals can limit our future possibilities

In other words, setting all of these goals for yourself only ends up limiting you because you are essentially closing yourself off from “what is” in this frantic attempt to create what you think you want.

What you’ll often discover is that you don’t really need to set all of these elaborate goals and you don’t necessarily need to come up with this perfect roadmap.  It turns out that all you really have to do is to find out what you need to do next.

Avoiding goals is not the same thing as avoiding hard work

Now just because a person is willing to open themselves up and not try to control the process with their endless list of goals and to-do lists, that doesn’t necessarily mean they sit around on the couch all day doing nothing as they wait for lady fortune to take them gently by the hand.

Having no goal isn’t about waiting or wanting, it’s about being willing to work your ass off today for an unknown result tomorrow

It takes far more courage to keep working not knowing where any of it will lead, than it does to set up endless yearly goals towards an imagined outcome.  One offers comfort while the other offers only vague possibilities.

It’s not easy and there are many days where I long for the comfort of knowing exactly where (I think) I’m going.

But at the same time, I now have this sense of flexibility that I never felt I had before.  Instead of simply pushing stubbornly ahead no matter what the outcome, I now make it a point to  listen a little closer to what the universe may be trying to tell me.

Most days the universe still whispers to me in shadowy indecipherable tones, but once in awhile, something will manage to get through this thick head of mine and an unexpected opportunity will show up on my doorstep.  I’ll admit that I’m still not always smart enough to open the door, but  at least now I usually know what I’m missing.

To this day, I still have a to-do list of daily tasks that I need to remember.  However these are not so-called “action steps” to achieve some large overarching goal, these are mostly simple reminders to myself so the cats do not starve or the kids are not accidently left at the bus stop.  Instead of spending my day trying to map out my future and figure out where exactly I’m going to be in ten years, I try to focus my energy on what I can do today to create something meaningful.

It doesn’t always work, of course, but tomorrow I know that I’ll wake up and try again.

Then again, maybe I’m just a slacker…..

What do you think?

• Do you make yearly, monthly, weekly goals for yourself?
• What system (if any) do you have to keep yourself focused on your goals?
• Have you ever actually finished your daily to-do list?  If so, what did it feel like (I wouldn’t know)
• What are you thoughts about having or not having goals?

Image courtesy of lululemon athletica

“Seeking means to have a goal; but finding means to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal.” ~Hermann Hesse

Here are some other articles you might enjoy:

1. Beating the Green-Eyed Bastard!
2. What are you willing to give up?
3. A (brief) Moment of Gratitude

Why Skinny WordPress?

Thanks again and I hope that you enjoy the new site!

Visit Skinny WordPress at: http://SkinnyWP.com

Here are some other articles you might enjoy:

1. Parting with your Art
2. The Muppets Guide to World Domination
3. Stop stealing my sh*t!

How to finally get that art scholarship

by: Kristina Gehrmann

There are literally thousands of available scholarships, awards and grants out there, for both art students and professional artists alike, in all fields of art: writing, painting, sculpture, dance, acting, music, ballet, photography… This mere fact is a revelation for many. You too can get a slice of the pie if you’re serious and passionate about your art skills, no matter what your current skill or education level is. It’s quite challenging and will take time, and you will get mostly rejection letters. But you can win only if you try. After all, if you ever want to become a professional, you have no choice but to get your work out there and show it to as many people as possible!

Step One: What do you need the scholarship for?

Chances are, you want one to finance your tuition for college or art school so I will focus on that.

First, research the schools where you plan to apply: Some (art) colleges are offering scholarships for students with especially strong portfolios, or good grades, or for students in need.

Then research yourself: What do you want to achieve by attending art school? Why does it have to be this or that school? How serious are you about becoming an artist in your chosen field? What does your ideal career look like? Who are your art idols? Only if you can answer those questions confidently you will appear serious about becoming an artist. Put yourself into the position of grant-givers: Why would they support anyone who isn’t totally sure art is the right path for them? Would an art foundation want to support someone who isn’t 100% serious about studying art, and who might end up having a different kind of career? Most likely they wouldn’t.

Are you a high school or college student? Talk to your art teachers and school counselors. They’re often involved in student aid and often can tell you where to start.

Step Two: Where do you live?

This is probably one of the most important questions, since most scholarships, grantmaking organizations, and foundations are location specific —supporting only applicants from one particular country, state or even city.

So if your school doesn’t offer scholarships, or your portfolio simply isn’t strongh enough yet to sweep them off their feet?  Then you have to find other sources. Go to Google and search in your specific language and country for words such as:  ”Foundation directory”, “Art foundation directory”, “art grants”, “art scholarships”, “art awards”, etc …

In the USA, you’ll find websites like:

• http://www.fundsnetservices.com/
• http://www.scholarships.com/financial-aid/college-scholarships/scholarships-by-major/art-scholarships/
• http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Organizations/Foundations_and_Trusts/

In Germany:

• http://www.kulturfoerderung.org/de/dizk_content/Foerderersuche/index.html

(I must admit I haven’t found many other such websites in Europe, but then again my French and Spanish is really weak, and most European state-financed art colleges are either free to attend or have low tuition fees.)

Help! I live in a country that is really poor and doesn’t support the arts in any way!

You can turn this into your advantage. Search on the U.S. Websites named above, and also search foundation directories in all other languages you know. It will take a few hours of reading, but eventually you’ll find grant-givers and foundations that support international students too!

Step Three: Do your homework!

This takes a long time but it will be worth it. You need to read and re-read the application criteria of every organization and foundation that supports art and/or students. If you’re female, or of foreign descent or some minority group in your country, or disabled, or from a low-income home, or an orphan, etc…  there are foundations for all those groups too, so you don’t necessarily have to focus on art or education organizations only.

For example: I’m female and applied at several women-supporting foundations too (unsucessfully). I also applied at about 60 more institutions and finally got a scholarship from one that supported artists and disabled people – I’m disabled too.

Read the criteria very carefully:  Who is eligible to apply for the money? Can single persons apply at all? Sometimes only organizations or schools can apply, or applicants have to be recommended by other people. Make sure you really meet the criteria for applying before sending anything, otherwise you’ll waste your time and theirs. If you’re unsure, send a friendly e-mail or phone call, it never hurts to ask.

For every organization where you’re eligible to apply, copy their website, mailing address, and e-mail and create a list or spreadsheet (That’s how I did it). Depending on the circumstances there might be a lot of places where you can apply, and by organizing them all in some kind of list, you can be sure that you never apply twice to the same place. That would be a bit embarassing, wouldn’t it?

Personally I sent applications to about 70 foundations and grant-giving organizations, mostly by snail mail because it’s easy to make an impression with a nice printed presentation. Be sure to find out how they prefer to receive your application, and if the foundation requires you to use e-mail or submit a website form to apply, do so.

Step Four: How do I apply?

Okay, now you’ve got your list. Many organizations will require you to send them some specific material, for example:

• Samples of your art. For sending them by snail mail, get good quality digital files of your art and have photos made of them. You know, photo-sized prints to make a „mini“ portfolio – they’re easy and inexpensive and they look good. No need to send big bulky portfolios (unless they specifically ask for this – schools often do). Music may be sent on CD.
• Your graduation papers, scores, grades.
• Recommendation letters from your art teacher(s), artists you studied with in workshops, mentors, etc. These can help a lot if written by someone in the field, it doesn’t even have to be someone influential and important (but not your grand-aunt!). Remember, the more serious you’re about art, the more willing those people will be to put in a good word for you.
• Are you disabled? Send a copy of your disability ID or some other confirmation.
• Are you an orphan, or poor? Send a copy of the confirmation.
• Have you been accepted at the school of your choice already? Send a copy of your acceptance letter.
• Do you already have publications, an art CV (a list of past exhibitions, studies, internships, publications, etc.), or a diploma from past studies? Include this! It shows how serious you are about your art.
• A cover letter, explaining who you are, what art you do and why, what exactly you would use the scholarship for. Most organizations will require this anyway. They want to know whom they’re supporting.

Very important: For every single place where you apply, find out exactly who you are sending your submission to. Address your cover letter and envelope to that person. You don’t want it to look like an impersonal mass-mailing, even if it is. Also, only send them the things they actually want. Most scholarship applications land in the trash because they don’t fulfill the application criteria.

A professional impression is important; correct spelling and grammar are paramount. Mistakes are easy to find with word processors and the help of friends and teachers, so there’s no excuse even if you’re dyslexic. A scholarship judge doesn’t know if you’re dyslexic – to them, and to most other people, spelling and grammar errors say  ”I don’t care!”.  Don’t let your application say that. Get others to proof-read it and make sure that all your material is organized, easy to read, and well presented. (No need for fancy fonts, Hello Kitty stationery or candies enclosed!)

If you’re going to send a lot of things you’ll have to invest a bit in copying costs. Altogether I sent about 70 applications by snail mail and spent about 300€ on copying/printing, packaging and shipping costs. It was a bit daunting and I made some mistakes, and there always was this doubt  ”was that really worth it?”. In the end, I received an 18,000€ scholarship for my studies at Angel Academy of Art from a very small, practically unknown foundation in Hamburg. All my other applications were sent back with friendly rejection letters.

Step Five: Mail your stuff!

Remember to apply to as many scholarships as possible. Don’t get discouraged.  Even though there will always be other applicants who are better, or may have more experience than you do, keep trying. Even they can’t apply for every art scholarship out there!

Of course there will be rejection, and you might not get the scholarship or grant that you were hoping for, but who knows? Don’t give up!  You can always try again later, no matter where you are in life – remember, there are grants and awards for artists of all ages, all fields and all media out there.

The bottom line is… you just gotta try.

Good luck!

P.S. Because writing applications is a tricky thing that could take up much more space than this whole article, I would like to point out this blog:

http://www.outlawstudent.com/2008/03/

It has many articles on how to (and how NOT to) apply for scholarships.

Now go kick some ass!

Kristina Gehrmann is an art student and freelance illustrator. Born in 1989 with a pencil in hand, she took up classical academic drawing and painting classes at Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy, in 2008. Having finished the program in 2011, she now continues studying illustration at the Akademie Leonardo in Hamburg with the goal of becoming a fulltime freelance illustrator.

You can see her portfolio at www.mondhase.de or follow her on:
Deviantart: http://maidith.deviantart.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kristina-Gehrmann-Illustration/217959828256642

For the Artist at the Start of the Day

May morning be astir with the harvest of night;
Your mind quickening to the eros of a new question,
Your eyes seduced by some unintended glimpse
That cut right through the surface to a source.

May this be a morning of innocent beginning,
When the gift within you slips clear
Of the sticky web of the personal
With its hurt and its hauntings,
And fixed fortress corners,

A Morning when you become a pure vessel
For what wants to ascend from silence,

May your imagination know
The grace of perfect danger,

To reach beyond imitation,
And the wheel of repetition,

Deep into the call of all
The unfinished and unsolved

Until the veil of the unknown yields
And something original begins
To stir toward your senses
And grow stronger in your heart

In order to come to birth
In a clean line of form,
That claims from time
A rhythm not yet heard,
That calls space to
A different shape.

May it be its own force field
And dwell uniquely
Between the heart and the light

To surprise the hungry eye
By how deftly it fits
About its secret loss.

~ John O’Donohue

[If you like this, please take a moment and share it with someone else you think might enjoy its message!]

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Artist Online Community Directory

As a community-based site, our purpose is to not only give you the opportunity to interact with this amazing worldwide creative community we have here at Skinny Artist, but also to connect with one another beyond this particular website.

So many of us have multiple websites and social media accounts set up that it’s sometimes difficult to find out where exactly our favorite artists hang out, so I was hoping to establish a simple online artist community directory where we could easily find everyone’s online information in one place. This will only work, however, if you are willing to add your information to this page.

So whether you are a visual artist, writer, photographer, musician, graphic artist, illustrator, or simply a creative soul trying to live your art everyday — We sincerely hope that you’ll join us!

Please check out the new Artist Online Community Directory and let us know where we can find you and your art online!

Here are some other articles you might enjoy:

1. How to Create (and destroy) your Reputation Online as an Artist!
2. 5 Fears that can Destroy an Artist
3. Meet artist Trevor Jones

Don’t worry, this is not some boo-hoo my life sucks kind of thing.

This is not about regret. 

This is not about looking back and wishing that I would have done things differently in the past because I do believe that every experience both good and not-so-good has an important lesson to share as long as we’re willing to listen (and not constantly repeat them).

Now having said that, there are still quite a few days that I would love to hop into my Delorean time machine and smack around my younger self a bit for acting like such an idiot.

I thought I would take this opportunity to start organizing my thoughts so when that day finally comes I’ll be ready. . .

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15 things I wish I would have known back when I knew it all:

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1.) Who you were in high school is not necessarily who you will become

Back in high school everyone was assigned a role to play.  We were either brainy kids, art freaks, dumb jocks, band geeks, drama weirdos, goths, preppies, burnouts, or whatever other label they wanted to assign us.  For whatever reason the adolescent mind likes to create divisions and exclusive cliques so we can feel misunderstood and it’s us against the world.

Once we leave the self-contained fishbowl of high school, however, we discover that the roles we were previously assigned is not necessarily who we actually are. The hierarchy that we have lived under for so long suddenly collapses and we are set adrift.  The sooner you stop looking to define yourself, the sooner you will have the opportunity to discover who you really are.  Resist labels.  Resist pigeon-holing yourself into your comfortable little niche. Expand your yourself and your friendships. Never miss the opportunity to really connect with someone new even if they may appear to be outside your social circle.

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2.) Sooner or later you’re going to have to stop eating crap

I know that right now you can eat that giant Chipotle burrito after school and wash it all down with a pint of Ben & Jerrys, but eventually eating all of that stuff going to catch up with you.  Right now maybe you’re still growing, maybe you’re involved sports, or maybe you’re just lucky enough to have the metabolism of a racehorse but trust me this is all going to change soon.  Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day you are going to wake up and and face the fact that you can’t continue blaming the dryer for shrinking all of your clothes.

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3.) Your job is not your identity

Your job will come and go, but it’s not who you are.  When people ask what you do, it’s not the same thing as who you are are, or perhaps more importantly, who you want to become. You need to make a focused effort to find your passion and your reason for getting up in the morning. It’s not about earning a paycheck or being able to pay your cell phone bill every month.  It’s about finding out what gets you fired up.  It’s about finding your unique niche and your place in the bigger picture. Having a job may provide you with the money to pursue your passion, but a job is simply a temporary situation until you can find a way to make money by doing what you love. But first you have to find out where you passion lies.

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4.) Stop wasting your time playing  xBox and watching hours of YouTube

When I was growing up it was the Nintendo 64 and bad cable television, now it’s Playstation 3 and Hulu but the result is the same.  Time is precious and trust me, all that free time that you have now to fritter away staring at the screen you’re going to desperately want back someday.  Start and explore your passions now while you still have the time to make mistakes and reorganize.  Someday when you finally get married and have kids, you’re going to be kicking yourself for not making better use of your time.

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5.) The people you meet are more important than the things you do

Everything good that happens in your life will be the direct result of people you have connected with along the way.  Accomplishments are great, but it’s the relationships that you make along the way that will ultimately determine your level of happiness. You’ll discover that it’s the people you know who will get you that next job or that big break, and not what you know or the things you’ve done.  Remember to nuture your relationships both old and new.  Don’t wait until you need something from your friends. Always be the first and last to give something to the friendship even if it’s nothing more than a smile or a simple word of encouragement.

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6.) No matter how busy you think you are, don’t forget to follow your passion

Find your passion, and then make the time to pursue what you love to do. It doesn’t matter if you can dedicate eight hours a day or fifteen minutes a day to following your passion and creating your dreams.  What’s important is that it’s a part of your daily life. Focus on what really matters to you.  Do something to feed your creative soul every day. Don’t live your life on auto-pilot.  Get out there and push yourself a little further each day.

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7.) You will not meet the love of your life in a bar

Love will find you when it finds you.  It’s an irony of life that those who go out looking for love will never find it.  The more you try to pursue love, the more it will continue to elude you.  Nothing scares off potential mates like the putrid scent of desperation.

Instead of spending your time and what little money you have hitting the clubs, spend some time working on yourself so that when you finally meet this special person you’ll actually have something to offer them.

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8.) Take some time to reflect on where you are and where you want to go

Right now you are so busy that it seems absurd to even think about slowing down.  However, unless you’re being chased by a bear, blindly running around as fast as you can is only going to make you tired.  Don’t worry about what your parents or your friends expect you to be. Find out what’s really important to you and make sure that you are heading in that direction. You also have to realize that your priorities will change, and what may be important to you at 18 will probably not be the same things that are important to you at 35. Always be willing to readjust your course if necessary.  Life rarely turns out the way we expect it to.

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9.) Learn about managing money from someone who’s not trying to sell you something

Get a credit card to establish a credit record but leave it at home and lock it away somewhere far, far away from the computer.  If I could offer you just one piece of advice on using a credit card, it would be to never buy something that you can wear, eat, or drink.

Start saving for your retirement now even if you don’t think that you can.  Set up automatic withdraws into your retirement accounts because you are never going to feel like you have enough money to start saving. Don’t wait until you get a “real” job, get married, or when you have kids.  Believe it or not, you’re going to have even less money then.  Save something.  Start now.

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10.) Insure you crap

Unfortunately, we live in a society where people and their blood-sucking lawyers can take not only all the money you have, but also all of the money that you may earn in the future as well.  Shit happens. Be prepared.

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11.) Learn to play an instrument

Any instrument.  It doesn’t matter if it’s the guitar, the piano, the cello, or the kazoo — learn to play an instrument and then practice at it regularly.  There’s nothing quite like the instant feedback and satisfaction of creating music.  Even it’s just noise.  Play your music.  Sing your song. You are the only one who can.

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12.) Stay away from Jägermeister

Don’t be seduced by it’s lovely green bottle, exotic name, or idiotic friends who may try to convince you that it’s not the devil’s own juice.  Seriously. . . Worst. Night. Ever.

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12 1/2.) Never rent a wet-and-dry vac from a grocery store located next to college apartments.

Trust me, you don’t want to know.

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13.) Don’t join a gym

I know that right now you may think that you’ll go every day, work out for three hours, and not be the lazy coach slug that you are. . . but you won’t.  Trust me, the only thing that’s going to happen is that you’ll end up hating yourself even more when you’re sitting there writing out the check every month. In fact don’t buy any exercise device you see on TV or online.  If you really feel like you want to get back into shape, put on your shoes and run a lap around the block and the feeling will soon pass.

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14.) You are far more likely to regret the things that you haven’t done than the things you have done

Experiment. Get outside your comfort zone.  Don’t allow yourself to get stuck into a rut.  Keep the wheels moving and try to do something new every day.  It doesn’t have to be something big and dramatic, it just has to challenge you in a new way.  You don’t need to bungee jump or go skydiving.  You can simply read a book, take a class, explore your neighborhood, or talk to someone you’ve never met. Make a point to expand yourself in some small way ever day.

Having said that, I would still avoid Jägermeister at all costs!

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15.) Chances are you’re going to ignore all of this and do whatever the hell you want to do anyway

Even if you’re sitting there nodding your head in agreement, let’s face it, five minutes from now you’re probably going to be back on Facebook talking about who said what to who, and why that person is such a you-know-what.  I don’t blame you.  I’ve been there.  In fact, I’m probably still there.  After all, I’m the one who ignored every piece of good advice I received for the first thirty years of my life.  So I’m not about to sit here and point the finger at someone else. . .

But just in case I do get the chance to go back in time, I’ve already packed a backpack with this list, ten feet of rope, and a fifth of Jägermeister. . .

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Would you like to smack around your younger self?

What if I let you borrow the keys to the Delorean for the day. . .

• What would you like to go back and say to your younger self?
• What would you do differently and what wouldn’t you change even if you could?
• What’s the best and worst piece of advice on life that you ever received?