The Organized Artist Company Blog

Please Eliminate The Phrase "Starving Artist" From The Vocabulary

WE ARE NOT “STARVING”

If I could wave a magic wand and make the phrase “starving artist” disappear from the lexicon, I would. 

Why characterize artists as starving?  We don’t say “starving” about any other job that’s unlikely to produce a high income.  We don’t say “starving minister” or “starving busboy” or “starving gas station employee,” even though artists are, in many instances, a whole lot more likely to make a million dollars than a minister, a busboy or the clerk at your local gas station. 

So, what’s the story?

People love to put artists down.  “Oh, you’re an actor?  Which restaurant?”  Ha. Ha.  “You’re a stand-up comedian?  Say something funny.”  We don’t put other professions on the spot.  You never hear someone say, “Oh, you’re a florist?  Arrange something.”  (We do often put doctors and lawyers on the spot, but not because we want to test their right to claim their calling.  We put them on the spot because we want free advice.)  And, perhaps the ultimate most-often-heard insult, “Any three year-old could paint better than that.  Heck, I could paint better than that.”  Or sing better or write better or whatever better.  And: Maybe they could.  But they don’t.  And chances are they’ve never tried. 

Because as much as people may want to test, to deride, to sneer at art and artists as something incomprehensible and unnecessary, their teasing has the same root as any it does in any schoolyard:  people fear what they need but don’t understand. 

And make no mistake, people need art.

My Performance Studies professor at Northwestern, the late ethnographer Dwight Conquergood, used to say that we should be called "Homo Narratus" rather than "Homo Erectus," because while other animals move upright, as far as we know, none of them tell stories in quite the same way we do.

We humans love to create art: cave drawings, stories to explain the night sky, songs for hunting and for childbirth.   Humans are endlessly interested in other humans. 

We want to see stories about them acted out on television, we want to hear jokes about them, we want to hear songs about them, we want to read books about them; our appetite for information about other people is insatiable.  And it is art that feeds that appetite.  No one knows why we have this capacity for self-reflection, but we do. 

Artists, like shamans, mystics and priests, explain us to ourselves.  

So let the others jeer – they may mock us, but they cannot live without us.

The impulse to squelch, to judge, to critique and to deride art isn’t going away.  And hey, we ask for it, don’t we?  We’re the ones hanging our work out there at the poetry slam or the art fair just inviting other people to throw rotten tomatoes at it. 

Or roses.  Sometimes they throw roses. 

And sometimes they throw money.  And once that happens, no one will ever call you starving again.

You Are So Perfectly Designed To Be You

Try this brief exercise and see what, if anything, shifts in your perspective on your life and career.  Write swiftly and without pondering - this is just an exploration.

1.    Make a list of ten people you never would have met if it hadn’t been for your art.

2.    Make a list of ten places you've visited and/or experiences you've had thanks to your art.

3.    List your greatest artistic failure (briefly – in shorthand – don’t dwell on it) and list three things you learned.  Now list three things/actions that came out of that “failure.”  For example: enrolling in that master's program was a disaster, except that I met my husband and two of my five best friends there.  Oh.

4.    List five elements of your talent that you know you do better than anyone else.  Or at least better than most.  For example: my color sense is impeccable; I have great rhythm; I’m a quick study...

5.    List five elements of your personality that dovetail perfectly with your talent.  For example: I’m friendly and that’s great in rehearsals and on set; I prefer being alone, and that’s great for my painting; I’m kind of a control-freak, which is great for directing… 

6.    List five elements of your personality that DO NOT dovetail with your talent.  For example: I’m an actor but I hate being looked at; I’m a textiles designer and I’m allergic to wool; I’m cook and I hate to measure..  And if you'd like to continue with this thought, answer this: what skills have you developed to compensate?  How do these “shortcomings” make you a better artist?

What did you notice about doing this exercise?  What new thoughts are you having?

Among Them But Not Of Them

The Solitude Cure

There is no real cure for loneliness. 

Except to transform it into solitude.

Solitude is remembering that there has never, ever been a single (solitary) person like you. 

You arrived alone

You'll die alone.

And in between those two things, you will be having a discreet, one-of-a-kind experience of the world.

Everyone has that "among them but not of them" feeling, at least sometimes.  And creative people feel it more often, I think, than most.

Everyone yearns for connection, comfort, fusion, total immersion.  We read books where people fall in love and "become as one" and we think we should have that feeling ourselves.

But that only happens in fiction.

So.

The cure is to embrace the separation.  Enjoy the space.  Hold yourself slightly apart.  After all, you already feel apart, so go ahead and exaggerate that feeling a little bit.  Observe the world around you.  Retreat into your own skin and observe you having your very own point of view on the world.

That isolated, personal point of view is where your art comes from.  So go ahead and create something inspired by this particular vantage point.  It doesn't have to be any good, and you don't ever have to show it to anyone.  Just go ahead and let something flow.

And now you have the real cure for solitude: art.

The Gift Of Jealousy

It isn’t the prettiest side of your personality, but there it is: jealousy. 

Ick. 

How very seventh grade of you.

But all of us, no matter how far beyond seventh grade we’ve gotten, feel jealous sometimes.

And here’s the news flash – jealousy is a gift. 

Jealousy is your gut’s way of telling yourself that first of all, whatever it is, you want some.  And secondly, you believe that you could have it.

After all, you are never jealous of those who have things you don’t want.  Imagine that your best friend just added an amazing rare frog to her Rare Frog Collection.  Feel jealous? 

I didn’t think so. 

If you have no interest in frog-husbandry for yourself, you don’t feel jealous.  Mystified, maybe, about why she might want to collect frogs to begin with, (in much the same way your family might feel about you and your choice of a career in the arts) but in no way jealous. 

Now if that same friend suddenly lucks into an all-expense paid six-month artist’s retreat in a villa in Provence, you feel jealous.  Because that, you want.

This is part one of the gift:  the simple acknowledgement of desire. 

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes pretend that I don’t want what I want.  I pretend that things are OK with me when they aren’t.  I pretend to be patient when I feel impatient.  I pretend I don’t mind being passed over when, in fact, I mind very much. 

Have you done that?  Tried to keep that “I Want” voice quiet?  Hurts a bit, no?

The second half of the equation, and perhaps the more important half, is this: you believe are capable of getting it.  It's true.  You are only ever jealous of things you believe you could do or have, yourself.  

What if your best friend just swam the English Channel? 

Still not jealous, are you?  Of course not, because that's not something you believe that you have the ability to do.

But if that friend wins an award in something you think you could do, or reaches some milestone you aspire to, or obtains some neat thing that you’re pretty sure you could obtain if only the circumstances were right, then that green-eyed light is likely to start flashing.

Jealousy is a signal from within about desire and will.  Add a little anger (also known by it’s polite name, frustration) and the recipe is complete.  Again, it’s not pretty, but it is an important message from your inner self – ignore it at your peril.

So the next time you find yourself trying to muzzle that nasty little voice of jealousy, take a moment and ask yourself:

-    Do I want that?
-    Do I think I could have it?

And if the answer is yes to both, then maybe it’s time you took some steps toward whatever it is.  Baby steps.  15-minute per day steps.  See if making a little progress toward your own goals doesn’t turn that jealous-monster voice into a happy-cheering-look-at-me-go voice.

Keep making those baby steps toward your goal, and I bet someday soon, someone will be jealous of you.

A Prayer For The Capable

And as you stand there

On time and
Appropriately clad for the event
With a high-fiber bar in your bag
And extra pens

Let us take this moment to applaud you.

You, the prepared.
You, the accomplished.
You, the bills-paid-on-time and the-taxes-done-in-March.

You, the one who always returns the shopping cart.

While the moody, the irresponsible, the near-hysterical and the rude seem to get
All the attention
Let us now praise you.

Just because everyone always expects you
To do well
Does not make it any less remarkable
That you always do so well.

So thank you.

For picking up the slack
For not imposing
For being so kind
And mannerly
And attending to all those pesky details.

Thank you for your consideration
Your generosity
For always remembering and never forgetting:

That a job well done is its own reward
That the opportunity to help someone else is a gift
That the complainers, the cry-babies, the drama queens, the never-use-a-turn-signals, the forgetful, the self-involved, the choleric, the phlegmatic and the your-rules-don't-apply-to-me-types
Would look pretty silly if they didn't have your calm stability with which to contrast themselves.

So take a minute
To pat yourself on the back
And say, "Job well done."
And as you consider someday
Showing up stoned
Or unprepared
Or not at all

And as you imagine someday being imperious
Or demanding
Or the one with the temper

Hear the unspoken "thank you" from a
Grateful nation that is a
Better, smarter, calmer, easier, friendlier and more organized place
Thanks to you
And your dogged diligence.

You are beautiful.
You are precious to us.

You are the oil on the water, the wheel that never squeaks, the one we all rely on
And while you probably would have remembered to send a thank-you note,
We forgot.

And just because everyone always expects you
To do well
Does not make it any less remarkable
That you always do so well.

And I would tell you to take the afternoon for yourself
Or sleep in tomorrow
But I'm pretty sure you already have plans.

So just take this very moment right now
To appreciate you
And all that you have done and done well
Even by your own high standards.

And remember:
You are beautiful.

And just because everyone always expects you to
Do well
Does not make it any less amazing, delightful or delicious that

You always do so well.

An Ode To The Overwhelmed

AN ODE TO THE OVERWHELMED

And as you stand there
Late again
Because you forgot to allow time to park
And the elevator was slow
And you left 10 minutes late to begin with

With your shoes that pinch
And your pants that are a little too small
Since you started eating white bread again

And as you paw through your bag
Looking for the suite number
That you’re not sure you wrote down to begin with

Let us now praise you.

You, the untidy.
You, the careless.
You, the easily distracted by sparkly things.

The money you spend on late fees alone
Could feed a family in Africa –
Which reminds you that you meant to send in the kids’ Unicef money and
Forgot.

And that despite your best efforts,
You rarely eat a square meal,
You almost never get enough sleep
And exercise seems like a word that magazines have developed
Just to make you feel bad about yourself.

But you are good and brave.
You, flying by the seat of your pants
Making it work
Putting out fires
Saying your prayers
And dancing your dance of now and later and maybe and
I’ll–have-to-call-you-back-on-that-could-you-send-me-an-email-to-remind-me-to-call-you-back-on-that?

As innocent as each morning’s sunrise,
You are a fount of good intentions.
Your good humor is as graceful as a baby giraffe,
Even if that joke you were trying to make to the hotel clerk fell flat
And your toast at the wedding came out sounding a little….funny.

But you have gifts that no one knows about.
You have the strength to bend in the wind
You have the joyful spirit that loves a good belly laugh,
You have the wisdom to understand that everything will all come out all right in the end and
You have the faith to light a candle rather than curse the darkness.

That is, if you could find the book of matches from that romantic restaurant that you went to for your anniversary but since you didn’t have a reservation they made you wait at the bar for half an hour during which you had two appletinis and the rest of the night is a bit of a blur.

So much for the overpriced lingerie.

You are beautiful.

You are beautiful.

Frazzled and overworked and underpaid
You are the one who forgot your wallet
And forgot your receipt for the dry cleaners
And forgot your keys which you just set down five seconds ago, so where could they possibly have gone?

But you never forget to say, “I love you”
And you never forget to give a big smile to that nice parking guy
And you never fail to show endless patience when the
Too-tightly wrapped and overly-conscientious start to offer their
Oh-so-helpful suggestions about how you might feel better if you would just learn to alphabetize your spice rack.

You are beautiful.
So, wear the lingerie on Monday for no reason.
And why not just refuse to participate in the bake sale this year?
And give yourself a compliment for something you did well today.

Because you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.

© Samantha Bennett

PS. There's still time to register for the Get It Done Teleclass - we begin this Tuesday, May 12th at 11:45am (Pacific Time) call in once a week for 12 weeks and get motivated, do homework, complete the project that will bring you closer to your best life.  If you can't make it, you can always listen to the recording.  Results and satisfaction guaranteed.  Feeling tempted?  Yeah, this is going to be fun.  Go here to learn more: http://www.theorganizedartistcompany.com/TOA/Next_Workshop.html

PPS. You can buy the t-shirt by going here: http://www.zazzle.com/easily_distracted_by_sparkly_things_tshirt-235344511073625260

In Praise Of The Grumpy

  click here to buy this t-shirt for the grouch in your life


IN PRAISE OF THE GRUMPY

And as you stand there
Arms crossed
Managing to look both infinitely patient and impatient at the same time
Trying not to roll your eyes and wonder how much longer all this will take

Let us now praise you.

You: the grumpy, the grouchy, the grumbling.
You: the beleaguered and the put-upon.
You: our hidden hero.

Because while you are
Short-tempered with the witless
Furious with the shallow and
Yelling at the television

It is only because you are so thoughtful
That everyone else seems so thoughtless.

And while you insist that you do not care about
What anyone is wearing or
What anyone said or did or
What so-and-so said or did back,
Nor do you give two figs about
The disenfranchised urban-dweller of today or
The illiterate or
The underprivileged of some foreign land or
Whomever it is we're supposed to be caring about today and that

You will not, under any circumstances,
Attend the choir concert or
The holiday party or
The 12-step meeting or
The neighborhood street fair or
The fancy dress ball or
The class reunion - for God's sake especially not the reunion - and that

You mustn't be relied upon for
Donations or
A ride home or
Free advice or
Help moving in to your new townhouse or a
Damn birthday present (what are we, six years old that we still have to give people birthday presents just because they managed to get born and stay alive?) or

Whatever it is that all those people with all those
Outstretched hands
Seem to want

You must know that we all know
That you do, indeed, care and that
You will, if pressed, attend and that
We all do rely
On you.

We can tell that you care,
Because you so assiduously refuse to conform to
Some greeting-card version of caring
And instead insist on caring about us as individuals.

You remember the conversation we had about
Ry Cooder's guitar playing, and
Six weeks later you slip us a
Homemade cassette tape with no label.

You shun the collection plate, and yet
You shove a hundred dollars into the Youth Group's coffee can
(A check, of course - no sense missing out on the tax deduction just because you had a weak moment.)

And when you go to greet us,
You look us in the eye and take our full measure
And if you should
Notice that we look a bit sad,
You will grab our hand and
Kiss us roughly on the cheek and say,"You OK, darlin'?"

You might grouse about Christmas Eve,
But you do love Christmas morning.

And while you would never voluntarily look at a
Photo album,
You forever hold a picture in your mind of
How we looked in
That Halloween costume
That prom dress
That uniform.

And we know you will attend
(Quit squirming - this poem isn't that much longer)
Because underneath your self-proclaimed
Disdain for all humanity
You are curious.
Intensely, insatiably, incorruptibly curious
And while you act repulsed
I suspect you are truly fascinated by us -
This clamoring horde of strangers you are compelled to share the planet with.

OK, OK: with whom this planet you are compelled to share.
Good grief you can be a pain sometimes.

And oh, how we rely on you.

And finally,
While you have largely succeeded in getting yourself off of
The phone tree
(That tactic you had about boring everybody silly with the excruciating details of your latest Water Filtration Project did wonders for removing you from any thinking hostess' guest list)
We do still rely on you.

Oh how we rely on you.

Oh how we rely on you.

You are our voice of sanity
Our comrade-in-arms
Our truth-telling ally in a world of endless bullshit.

You are our hidden hero
Deceptively chivalrous with
Your tender heart clad in dented armor.

And you must know that
When you are gone
We miss you.

So go ahead and
Sneak out at intermission and
Have an extra drink to get you through the reception and
Just turn and walk away from the
Over-gesticulating and the infuriatingly self-righteous.

Save yourself from these petty cruelties so that
When the world becomes just too much for us poor mortals to bear
We can rely on you to save us.

Oh how we rely on you.
Oh how we rely on you.

Oh how we rely on you.

Now stand still, because we're going to give you a nice, big hug.
 
© Samantha Bennett
By The Way, You Look Really Great Today
www.TheOrganizedArtistCompany.com

Thief

So I was doing some internal work a while ago about money.  Now, as it happens, I have a pretty good relationship with money.  I like money, I usually have enough, I don't mind paying bills and since I always pay my bills on time, I have a very sexy credit score.But I couldn't help noticing that while I always had enough money, I never had more than enough.  My standard of living hasn't changed much in the past 20 years, and I was feeling like I'd like to participate more fully in the economy; I want to buy stuff.

I took a piece of paper and started writing down all the ways I thought I was about money: thrifty, smart, easy, responsible, careful, respectful, appreciative.  All well and good.  But what about the opposite?  What about the ways I thought I wasn't allowed to be about money?

I started going with the idea that "what you can't be with, runs you."  In other words, if you can't stand the idea of being rude, then you spend your whole life in terror of rudeness, and you let your fear of rudeness make your decisions for you.  But if you can admit that (sometimes) you are rude, then you can just go about your generally-polite life aware that sometimes rudeness happens, and that's OK.  (Especially if you apologize afterwards.)

So what do I think I can't be around money?  Hmmm: irresponsible, careless, profligate, reckless, wasteful, disrespectful, ungrateful... With each word I made a picture in my mind of me behaving in that way.  Irresponsible?  Yes, I could definitely think of a time or two that had happened.  Careless?  Certainly.  Profligate?  Well, not really, but I sort of liked the image that appeared in my mind of me just throwing money around, buying stuff without looking at the pricetag - very Auntie Mame.  This was fun.  Then.  Then.  Then I wrote down the word "thief."

Well.  Clearly a person can't be a thief.  That would just be wrong.  But I was committed to my "opposites" game, so I started to think, "where in my life am I a thief?"  And it came to me:

The quarter-inch of lotion in the bottle I couldn't bring myself to throw away or replace, because there was still some left. 

The freebie lipstick that was the wrong color but I kept it anyway.

The clothes in my closet that don't fit.

The time I stole from my writing to ditz around doing nothing much at all.

Those items - the ones I was hanging on to out of a sense of "thrift" - were STEALING from me!  They were stealing my time, my attention, my space, even my ability to liberally apply lotion after my morning shower! 

And I was stealing my own art right from under my nose.I was the thief, stealing from myself over and over again. 

I was stealing my ability to live in the moment.  I was even stealing my faith in the future.  I was stealing away from myself the thought that maybe, if I got rid of the junky bit of lotion or the ugly lipstick or the ill-fitting clothes, that there would still be enough to go around.  That I could "splurge" on new clothes that fit the body I live in right now.  I was stealing the 15 minutes a day I could be spending working on my book - which also meant stealing my integrity.

That's what my misplace sense of thrift was really stealing: my ability to live in full integrity in this moment.  Right Now.

As you are probably old enough to know: Right Now is all we have. 

Right Now is the whole banana.  We all have friends who have left this earth - they don't have a Right Now anymore.   (Perhaps they are in an eternal Right Now?)  But we have Right Now, and we deserve to have items in our lives that suit our life Right Now. 

So stop saving things "for good" -  use the good silver every day.

Stop keeping clothes that don't fit - someone else needs them.

Stop fretting - spending 10 minutes debating the relative merits of one shampoo that's 50 cents cheaper than another shampoo is NOT the highest and best use of your time. 

Stop wasting time on television shows you've already seen.  Don't let TV or video games be a thief.

And finally, stop pretending that you not spending the time or money on your ART that you know it needs and deserves in order to come full flower is somehow a good idea.  Don't be the thief of your own creativity.

Find the thieves in your world and give them a big hug and kiss and let them go.

Right Now needs you.

How To Do Your To-Do List

Running Your Career From Your Heart

The ability to correctly prioritize your list can mean the difference between sending out another pointless mass mailing and creating a targeted campaign that yields real results.  It can mean the difference between the frustration of blindly submitting yourself for whatever projects show up and cultivating the relationships that can get you offers.  A good to-do list factors in time, budget, potential return on investment and most importantly, the truth about you.  Running your career from your heart is the only way out of the brambles of “should-do” and into the clear sunshine of “love-to-do.”

In short: a good to-do list can mean the difference between life as a frustrated, struggling artist and life as a happy, smiling, thriving artist.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.brainsofminerva.com/2010/03/04/health-beauty/how-to-do-your-to-do-list/

Ode To The Small Business Practitioner, or, Oh, You American Dreamer

NOTE: I wrote this in honor of Infusionsoft (the world's best email marketing, database management and shopping cart system) and Infusionsoft Users everywhere as a "Thank You" for being so generous and supportive and for knowing that there's always room at the table for one more.

Ode To The Small Business Practitioner, or, Oh, You American Dreamer

And as you stand there

Wondering

About your Search Engine Optimization and

Curious if this new Seminar might really be of some help and

Kicking Yourself A Little for all the Work that is piling up as we speak

Let us now praise you.

You, the Wondering, the Curious, the Kicking Yourself A Little.

You, the Founder, President, CEO, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer who WILL

Double your sales this year.

You, the American Dreamer.

You are made of stern stuff.

You hopped off the Merry-Go-Round

(or maybe you were pushed)

And now you live in this New World of

Checking Google Analytics and

Waking up with a Great Idea at 4am and

Telling your family: Yes, I'll be right there - I just have to do this

One

Quick

Thing.

And while you may grimace when you hear your friends say,

"Wow, it must be great to work in your pajamas" and

"Wow, it must be so great to be your own boss" and

"Wow, are you lucky!"

It's true.

It is great to work in your pajamas and

Be your own boss and

Yes

You are lucky.

Lucky to be here now in this time of Unprecedented Opportunity.

Lucky to have this passion for Your Work.

And even though you might start making

Hysterical Hyena-like Sounds the next time some Pessimist mutters, "Well, in this Economy..." and even though

The Loneliness of being The Boss can sometimes be a hot, shimmering desert of aching solitude and

Even though

Even though

Even though...

You wouldn't have it any other way because

Now you know what you did not know before.

Now you know:

Always. Back. Up.

And now you know:

Always have someone proofread, especially the dates and the phone numbers.

And now you know:

Always test all the Action Links

(And don't just hit the "send test" button because I think that sends from a different server so you need to actually create a "find people" test list made up of dummy addresses that you set up in Yahoo and Gmail and your own webmail and, if you have to, even AOL, so you can see what people are actually getting in both HTML and Text-Only - trust me, it's totally worth the hassle.)

And now you know:

Always trust your instincts.  Always.

Because it is your instincts that have

Brought you this far and

It is your instincts that will

See you safe home.

So dream on, you Gladiators of the Kitchen Table.

And as soon as you can figure out

What the hell API integration actually is,

I have no doubt that you will do it.

You are living The Dream.

You are living Our Dream.

Long live this Vibrant, Gritty, Hard-Fought, Hard-Won, Capricious, Eclectic, Heart-Pounding, Soul-Stirring, Headache-Inducing, Detail-Oriented, Incessant, Unstoppable, Terrifying, Tantalizing,

Who-Needs-A-Penthouse-Of-Chrome-And-Glass-

When-Dad's-Old-Chevy-Runs-Just-Great?

Why-Don't-They-Teach-This-Stuff-In-School?

Jump-On-In-The-Water's-Fine and

I'm-Sure-Next-Quarter-Will-Be-Better and this is

So-Much-Harder-Than-I-Could-Have-Thought

So-Much-Better-Than-I-Ever-Could-Have-Imagined

Heartfelt

(Bloodied But Unbowed)

American Dream.

© Samantha Bennett 2010

By The Way, You Look Really Great Today