The Psychology of Imitation
How to turn your work from a master copy to a masterpiece
Recently, a good friend wrote to me:
“You sound like a Brooke Castillo infomercial.”
She was right!
I discovered Brooke’s podcast a few years ago, and it resonated with me, so I consumed it voraciously - all 444 episodes - over a year-and-a-half period while I cooked dinner or folded laundry. Maybe you have favorite podcasts like this.
I was fascinated how this woman had created a coaching business - but not only that - how she had created a method, a simple system of self-reflection that started to really transform my thinking - and I knew it would benefit my artist clients.
I felt so excited by this change that I eagerly saved the money and entered her coach certification program - pricey, mind you, at $21,000. Worth every penny. I’m now a certified life coach, and it has added so much to my life.
I started to believe that I could help people and build a business around my coaching and art - even though I had zero evidence of it, and a lot of fear.
I just kept going because I have this burning desire to help artists believe they can learn how to create a thriving business, make money with their art - and stop struggling.
We create master copies not to imitate, but to learn
At first, just like when I started making art, I was having ALL SORTS of thoughts, such as this is HARD, I don’t think I can do this. I wouldn’t believe people even if others told me I was good at this coaching thing - or at creating paintings. I knew differently. I knew I sucked!
That’s Impostor Syndrome - “The internal perception that you are not as competent as you think others perceive you to be.”
That’s a lot of thoughts and perception!
Most of us experience this at some time or another.
People compliment us, or say we are good at something, but we don’t believe them.
Artists are often infected and deeply affected by this dilemma. As we learn to draw or paint or do any art form, we often learn by copying artists we love, and creating master copies. We study every brushstroke of a Rembrandt, every value shift of a Turner, every color of a Kahlo. We map out the painting we are copying with intense focus.
When we’re done, we step back and are often presented with a painting that bears only a fleeting resemblance to the work we are copying.
And that’s ok.
We create master copies not to imitate, but to learn.
And fail! and try again. They say it takes 10,000 paintings before you learn to paint and “find your own voice.”
But the thing they don’t tell you is (or, rather, our mentors tell us this ALL the time, but we don’t believe them) that you ARE your own voice - you can’t HELP but speaking or painting in your own voice.
What changes over the 10,000 paintings is your belief in yourself.
Standing on the shoulders of … normal people
I created my first master copy of Euan Uglow’s Peach, thinking it would be simple.
Ha! This little 6 x 6-inch painting of a piece of fruit obsessed me for a week, measuring it out like he did, mixing each color to capture his light.
Euan Uglow was just an artist like the rest of us - struggling with his work, his passion, his project to make something beautiful. I honor him as my mentor, even though I never met him, and he died years ago.
And I learned SO much. Yes, about him, his color, his method, but more about myself, my own painting, how I mix colors, how I see light, how I measure.
By copying, I began to trust my own emerging voice.
That is what is happening with my coaching. And this is what I am hoping to teach my clients - who don’t believe they can create a flourishing business from their artwork - and their brain.
When I was getting my coaching certification, I wrote down this thought and read it every day:
“I am a professional coach that studies every day to know this material backward and forwards so I can help my clients.”
I aced my exam. And I created a belief in myself from thin air.
And you can do the same.
That is your gift and privilege as a human being.
Our DNA, ironically, is the “original” master copy. We are just a replica of this pattern.
When you look into the mirror, do you sometimes catch a glimpse of your mother’s eyes, or your father’s nose?
It’s weird!
We are just an infomercial of our parents and yet totally ourselves. As the Bible (or was it Shakespeare?) said, “there’s nothing new under the sun.”
It is only our BELIEF that is different.
There are a couple of psychological syndromes that explain this:
The Chameleon Effect
When people hang out together, they copy or mimic each other’s behavior. This allows them to reallows their brains to release pleasant chemicals that makes them feel a part of the group. To build rapport, fit in, and learn from others. to be safe. For instance, when you go to Australia, you may start saying “G’Day, mate!” At first, it may be awkward and funny, but after a while, it may help you feel a part of the culture.
It’s natural to mimic and copy. It’s in our DNA and in the ways we create social connection.
In an article in Psychology Today, Dr. Alain Samson, PhD, writes:
“Our uniqueness is expressed not only from ourselves, but from our choices.”
So - WHO you copy shows your individuality - a strange oxymoron!
“Our uniqueness is expressed not only from ourselves, but from our choices.”
Who do you copy?
Da Vinci? Warhol? Cindy Sherman? Basquiat? DeKooning? Your choices in themselves say a LOT about you, your preferences, your attitudes, passions, and personality.
SOOO many choices to learn from that it can be overwhelming.
So we have to reel our selves in and manage our thoughts.
When you learn from others, always check in -
How is this fitting with my own beliefs?
What ARE my beliefs?
Are my beliefs working for me?
Am I open to new beliefs?
In other words - listen to yourself as much as you listen to others. This will help build your self-concept as someone who can make decisions that you will trust to serve you.
And then, there’s what I will call Outsider Syndrome.
n 2016, Markus Freitag and Paul C. Bauer published their study, ‘Personality Traits and the Propensity to Trust Friends and Strangers’ in The Social Science Journal.
They say that we trust strangers (outsiders) more than friends (insiders) - because strangers bring new information, basically. And we need new information to grow and survive.
South Beach Panorama, photograph, Shannon Borg
How do I find my own voice?
At first we don’t believe out mentors when they say, you can do this! At first, we might think:
I can’t do this.
I’m bad at business. It’s all I can do to focus on art.
I’m not smart enough.
I’m too shy.
Everything has already been done before.
My art is just a ripoff of (insert famous artist here).
And that might be true! The less we resist these thoughts - and actually look at the cause of them, the more we can avoid the trap of “positive thinking” - which is just avoiding, hiding, pushing anything BAD or negative away. The more willing we are to feel these thoughts, to understand where they come from, the more able we will be to find better thoughts, transform them into something that works for us.
Because when you are thinking those thoughts, you are feeling the painful emotions of being defeated, and not pushing yourself to grow, to experiment over and over and keep failing - until you succeed.
“Our thoughts create our beliefs”
This is an oft-used phrase, not just from my mentor, but from Buddha, the Roosevelts (both Franklin and Eleanor), Rene Descarte (“I think, therefore I am”), Byron Katie, Oprah - need I go on?
We all share information as a species. We learn from each other until we have the courage to infuse that belief into our own words - our own art.
Living or dead, our mentors help us to find our own beliefs.
It’s then, when all the learning, all the methods meld together, when you’ve painted your 10,000 paintings, taken your 1000 baby steps, that breakthrough comes.
I’ve used Brooke’s methods, and many other mento’s teachings to transform myself from a bitter, resentful, confused, overweight, overdrinking, negative, fearful artist to a more healthy, balanced, artist/entrepreneur who is learning how to create a business, to make the art I’m passionate about and help others.
And having SO . Much. Fun.
And now I’m also much more able to be vulnerable, to admit mistakes and accept criticism with out defensiveness.
Bedaaue I’ vebeen around the lock a few times.
and come to believe in my own voice, and trust that I will find the people who want to do this work with me.
For now - you can believe ME if you need a mentor. Until you can believe in yourself.
When we come to the point where we have internalized the lessons we sant to learn from our mentos, what is the next step?
Honor your mentors thorugh your belief in yourself to create courage with your thoughts - to create something of value in the world.
And its ok, that, if, for a while, you sound like a Shannon Borg infomercial.
Can you imagine a cat
doing this?
Me neither.
If you Struggle with the Struggle …
I get it. It has taken me a long time to realize that managing my thoughts around my creative process is the thing that will really change my reality. So much so, that I studied to become a certified life coach (It has been an amazing journey!).
I now help people (artists and other people) work through the thoughts that are holding them back - and sometimes we don’t even know what those thoughts are until we start looking at it.
If you would like to explore this process - I invite you to set up a free consultation, where I’ll walk you through what I do, how this works, and see if coaching is right for you.
These are the ways coaching can help:
Build self-confidence in your work, your life, your art, your business
Get past money mindset issues so you can live in abundance no matter what your financial situation is
Innovate to solve problems so you can life the future you envision - seriously!
Set up a free consultation to explore how coaching might help you.
Thank you!
Email me at hello@shannonborg if you have inquiries or questions!
