1. The Setup
Favorite Quote from Episode # 1:
And then the day came, when the risk to remain tight in the bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
— Anais Nin, poet
Big 3 Ideas:
Artists already think like entrepreneurs, in innovation, willingness to experiment and fail, and many other ways.
How we set up our art is how we set up our mind - and vice versa.
The Creative Life is your masterpiece to build, little by little, in baby steps and breakthroughs.
One-on-one business coaching for artists.
If you are curious about one-on-one coaching, give me a call!
The Metaphor Mindset Studio is an online program for artists and creative entrepreneurs to build business skills, mindset issues, creative blocks, creative and business vision, and more.
Let’s talk about what you are up to, your latest challenges, and what you need for your art &/or business right now.
Transcript
Shannon: The metaphor mindset is a podcast for artists and creative thinkers, entrepreneurs and leaders who want to explore ideas around creativity and commerce.
Think like an artist work like a boss.
And this is episode one, the setup.
Hello, creative fellows.
I'm Shannon. And I'm a writer, a poet, an artist, and a certified life coach. In the first episode, I'll share a little bit of my story and also share the stories of other artists, their creative processes and ideas about how to make our art and businesses grow and flourish. Let's dive in to the setup.
Over several months in the spring of 1892 in 1893, the 52 year old Claude Monet left his beloved Giverny and traveled north to the city of Rouen where he [00:01:00] rented a second floor room. In a ladies clothing shop across the street from the entrance to the 495 foot tall limestone cathedral, the tallest in France.
From this vantage point, he painted the facade of the church more than 30 times at all times of day in all different weather.
Although we can't know exactly how it worked. I like to imagine his process because it helps me think about my own process and create a story and atmosphere for myself in the studio. I imagine Monet observing a ritual before dawn, he wakes up and drinks, coffee, he takes a walk. He comes back to the shop and gets started.
He pulls a canvas from a stack of canvases leaning against the wall. I don't know, but perhaps this one's marked 6:00 AM on the edge. He places it onto his easel and looks out the window at the cathedral [00:02:00] at the light. The atmosphere between him and the edifice, what he called the envelope that encompasses the artist, the object, and the light and weather in between.
Monet mixes his paints. This early it's blue and lavender to peach, a slate gray of the stone. Where it falls away to the ground.
He works quickly over the whole canvas, finding the light and placing it, looking out the window at the teardrop shape doorway with all of its facets, carved into the stone, like stained glass or a jewel.
At seven o'clock. He puts the six o'clock canvas away. The light has changed. And chooses another. One he worked on yesterday at this time. Placing it on his easel and adjusts his paints. Now the light is peachier and more pink. On this canvas, he works with more contrast, deeper shadows as the light stretches across [00:03:00] the stone.
When the light changes again, he pulls the next canvas. Adjusts, his paints towards gold and orange. As the sun rises above the cathedral, stretching its light across the full face of the doorway and the walls.
This is the setup.
As artists we prepare, we think ahead. We hold our hands up to frame the scene. We gather our paints, our materials. We squeeze out just what we need. So you don't waste anything, but we also make sure we have enough, so we're not caught wanting. We gathered brushes. We wait for the light.
When everything's in place, you feel a sense of calm.
Whether you're a photographer, a Potter, a dancer, an actor. There's that moment before you start, when you take a breath.
And begin. As artists, the setup is everything. When you can prepare an innovate ahead of time. It creates a sense that we'll be ready for [00:04:00] the creative moment to happen with us.
But with business, we often don't see it that way. We feel confounded and think I'm not good at business. I'm not good at numbers. I'm not good at technology. If you're struggling with this confusion, remember you're not alone.
All artists have thoughts about how they work. And everyone has issues around something in their life or their business. Monet had a lot of anxiety. Michael Howard in his Encyclopedia of Impressionism writes.
As always the pictures gave him intense difficulties, which threw him into the despair. He had vivid nightmares of the cathedral in various colors, pink, blue, and yellow falling upon him.
And Monet wrote. “Things don't advance very steadily primarily because each day I discover something I hadn't seen the day before. In the end. I am trying to do the impossible."
When Monet had nightmares about buildings falling on him. When it was really difficult. When it took him months to get to the point where he. Really felt like he was making progress. He didn't pack it in. He didn't take his paints and his brushes and his canvases and go home.
He was always pushing himself. He was always trying to do the next thing that was. Fascinating. That was interesting. That kept him motivated. It was hard. But he was all in. He was willing to feel that pain. That discomfort. In To get to the next stage. You work at your art to learn and be prepared. So when the moment happens, you're ready. And it's the same in business. It's not easy. And there's a lot of things that feel impossible, especially when you're just learning.
But if you're willing to feel [00:06:00] that discomfort, if you're all With the idea that you can make a career from your art. That you can have a big exhibition that you can sell paintings online, that you can create an installation, whatever it is. When you're all in, you're willing to feel the discomfort that comes along with growth.
This podcast will explore the many ways that artists think innovate and solve problems. Ways you may not even realize can be the cornerstones of your creative business.
I want to shift now to the setup inside our heads. And use this idea to look at how your thoughts ultimately create your reality in both business and art.
In 19th century Paris. The academies of art had studios we've all seen in pictures and paintings. The high windows covered with curtains, the dais, [00:07:00] the darkened room easels surrounding the platform. Strong lighting in a controlled environment, made it easier to see the differences between darks and lights. To understand the value scale.
I want you to think of this space in your mind. This room. Is your mind. The model represents the circumstances in your life. The light shining onto the model. These are your thoughts. You can light the figure to look highly dramatic. You can light the figure to look softer and gentle.
As you stand at your easel, these thoughts are controlled by you and filtered through your brain. Into a feeling. Into a frame. You hold your hands up and frame your subject onto your canvas. You decide what feeling you want to capture.
And then you take action. You may start with a free gesture drawing, moving around the whole canvas at once or measuring everything out before you make a mark.
Your actions will be different than the person next to you. And then at the end of the class, we line up our canvases. And look at the results. Your results are a culmination of all that is occurred here in that darken room of your mind.
And believe me. That darkened room of my mind. Was pretty dark.
When I first decided I wanted to paint. I had to do it. In my own home with nobody looking. I had a lot of fear and apprehension about the whole I look back on And just wonder why it was so dramatic. But really it had been a desire that had been in my life for many years. I studied art history on my own. I studied painters. I went to galleries. I went to museums all the time.
It was really a huge part of my life. But every time I tried to take an art class or draw on my own, I just felt like. It was awful. So I kept trying here [00:09:00] and there to take classes. But I really. Needed to.
Finally come to the mindset that it was okay to be awful.
As a child. I had wanted to draw and paint. But I really didn't like the marks I made. I really felt like I wasn't any good, like, I didn't have talent. And when I wrote things, I was praised for it. It came a lot easier. So I went down that road.
Who doesn't like to get praised, who doesn't like good feedback.
In art. I just felt like I was so far from anything that I really wanted to do. But maybe I was just better observing instead of trying to do it myself.
It wasn't until I turned 50, that I made the decision. To become an artist. Not to just try to paint. Try to draw, but really put all my effort into following this dream. I lived on an island. I still
And there weren't art classes around. So what I decided was. I'll go to the library. Check out all the books learn what they have And see how far I can get on my own. So that's what I did.
The poet Anais Nin said, " And then the day came, when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
I definitely felt like that.
I lived near an oyster farm, and I had been involved in the food and wine business. And I loved oysters and I collected the little oyster shells and I love to. Walk on the beach. So I thought, oh, I'm going to start to draw oyster shells. They have to be easy, much easier than the figure. [00:11:00] So And as I drew them,
And tried to make very simple drawings. I realized of course, how complex and interesting
And as I moved along on this path of drawing little, tiny shells. And bigger shells and barnacles and kind of going into the structure of these objects, these little creatures. I became so fascinated with them. That I quit worrying about how good my drawings were.
And then I decided to start painting them. So I checked out every book in the library. And I went through all the exercises that were there.
One of my favorite books that I checked out. Was by Jose Paramon. full of pictures from the 1970s. But it was really a great primer. On the basics of painting. And also I loved how Jose had all of these little paragraphs about. Now is the time to step back and look at your painting. Now is the time to have a cigarette and a cup of coffee and relax and enjoy what you're doing. So when I was reading these books, I really started to relax and just enjoy the process.
I love. Jose. He was my first painting teacher.
So as I looked around.
For classes to take. It was really difficult to find any in my region. Finally I found Gage Academy in Seattle. And I applied to go to the studio arts intensive program.
The planets would have to align. I had a full-time job. And I was planning to quit my job. And go to Seattle to study
So I saved my pennies. And when I got to a certain amount of money. I think it was $20,000 in my bank account. I quit my job. My brother, luckily had a little condo in Seattle that I could stay in. He was in another country. And that condo had been being worked on. It had dry wall all over the place.
A friend of mine was staying there. On and off. So I really kind of had to put that in motion to get that finished up, to get my friend, to get his stuff out of there. And then I would drive down to Seattle, which meant taking a ferry. And then a two hour drive. I drove down every weekend. Stayed for the classes and then came back and also I set up a monitor position.
Where. They would have a monitor in each class. I applied for that. And that meant that my tuition was half So that was really cool. [00:14:00] With all of these planets aligning. This two year process began. I really only planned to go for a year.
For studio arts intensive. And I did that process. I took printmaking and drawing and oil painting and sculpture and color theory and all of these different classes. It was amazing. And at the end of the year, I course realized that I just wanted more. I applied to enter an atelier. The Trowbridge Atelier with my mentor, Kimberly Trowbridge.
And I got And I was the monitor for that class too.
Every single step along this way was excruciatingly painful. But also, it was amazing. It was like, I was determined to not only. Try to paint draw here and there. I still felt. Like I couldn't draw or paint.
But I just wanted to live this
So I just kept barreling ahead.
I was willing to feel the pain that was going to take me to the next stage.
And when I got down into my first classes,
At Gage. I was confronted with my own thoughts with that dark room of my mind. And wow. You know, why am I doing this? I can't draw. I can't paint. Everybody here is so much better than me. What is the point of all of this? I don't have any money. I'll never make money. You know, all these terrible. Thoughts, but. My desire to be an artist really pushed me past that.
It was so strong coming from my long held thought since I was a child. That I want to be. I am meant to be an artist. So after two years, I still felt very ham-handed when it came to actually making art, making pictures. And knowing anything about. Color or line. I felt like there was so much to explore. I felt like.
Everything I did was just bringing me up to this very basic baseline that everybody else had been. Experiencing and living their whole lives.
But along the way, I had amazing mentors. Creative therapist's really. That helped me navigate my own mind. Learn to manage my thoughts around the creative process.
When I started the gap between where I was and where I knew I wanted to beat was so huge. So I started to rely on. This idea of baby steps and breakthroughs. Every day. In class, I would have a baby step. I would just take the baby steps. I would just set things up.
Like my teacher said, I would just try to draw what I saw. I would just try to make the big shapes. I would try to mix the paints. I would try to create a palette without making a complete mess.
Some days it worked and some days it didn't. And then once in a while, I would have these breakthroughs. Where I was just so full of this beautiful energy.
And felt like I had made some kind of leap forward.
As I started to manage my own mind. And stop whining about, oh my palette's always a mess. Why can't I draw? As well as so-and-so et cetera. I started to take ownership of my own emotions. And my own process and come into emotional adulthood. I admit it was torture. But any S men was right that the pain to remain in the bud was more than the pain it took to blossom.
To get out of my own way to trust the process. And it came down to this. To think better thoughts.
Monet had a similar issues.
In his letters to Alice, he talks about how bad his paintings are.
He would rip his paintings to shreds. He would kick a hole in the middle of them. One time. Apparently he threw his paint box into the river.
And he would say things like “color is my day long obsession, joy and torment.”
In his letters. “Every day, I discover more and more beautiful things. It's enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything. My head is bursting with it.”
And. “I would like to paint the way a bird sings.”
He was trying to paint the impossible. And this is what we all try to do in our art. I feel.
Paint and dance and light and color. These are all languages.
[00:19:00] To express things that can't be expressed in words. And of course. This is frustrating. When our lives are really centered around words. And. The day-to-day expression of language.
My coach calls this the river of misery.
So when we are in the river of misery, we are in that place. That's between where we are and where we want to be. But as we have seen with Monet, if we are willing to feel that pain feel the discomfort of every day, just taking baby steps.
Breakthroughs can happen.
This was an interesting process for me.
It's a continuum.
And I started choosing thoughts that served me. That original thought from my childhood. That I [00:20:00] meant to be an artist got me far. I still believe that it got me through that original river of misery in my classes where I just felt so much anxiety every day. In fact, I remember. Going to one of my first art classes. I was so anxious that I had to have two glasses of wine before I went.
And then I had to take a jar, a little jar of wine into class with me. This was a night class. So it wasn't like I was drinking in the morning. But still.
It was awful and I needed, I felt like I needed this alcohol. To take the edge off of my anxiety. Of course it didn't work. And, that was a bad idea. But it just shows how painful it was. And I'm sure that. You have had that experience.
Where. You just want something to take that pain away.
I still [00:21:00] believe. That, that original thought I meant to be an artist. Got me through the river of misery. Until I was at a place where I could choose better thoughts.
Such as, one thought that I use now. Is I create a routine and schedule that helps me show up at the canvas and my business every day. Enjoy and growth.
This helps me feel like an artist.
That's the feeling like I said, that I want to have, it's a process.
But it's what I love and I wouldn't change.
So I want to ask you. What is your setup? How do you prepare yourself?
To live the life of an artist.
Do you have a daily practice of drawing? Do you take a notebook with you wherever you go?
Do you paint? Every Saturday. Or several days a week. I'm so curious.
Next time, I'll be talking about creating an atmosphere in your studio, in your business and in your brain that will allow [00:22:00] you to flourish.
Flourish was my word of the year.
Lastly, Do you have a word for this year?
By the time this podcast comes out, I may have chosen one. But I've put a little exercise, a little worksheet on my website to help you choose a word for the year. This idea of flourish for me last was all about flowers. It was all about like blossoming and that Nin quote, really brought it to mind.
I wanted to feel. That everything in my life was growing was blooming was blossoming. And it really helped me keep that mentality. Again, choosing better thoughts.
I hope that you. Enjoy my podcast. I hope that you found something. Interesting and fun here.
And I'd like to.
Thank Claude Monet. For all of his amazing work.
And even though. [00:23:00] He said. “I'm not performing miracles. I'm using up and wasting a lot of paint. “
And sometimes. He was able to choose better thoughts. Like. “I perhaps, owe, having become a painter to flowers.”
Or” the richness I achieve comes from nature. The source of my inspiration.”
I just want you to know.
That you're not alone.
As a coach to artists, I help you to choose better thoughts.
To look at your thoughts. And take stock and think about how they're serving you.
I help artists set goals. And think about your business as a whole, whether you want to start one. Or whether you are growing, an existing art business. I coach one-on-one.
And I would love to talk to you. If you feel. Like now is the time to explore. A new way to grow.
Have a great week. Keep painting. Keep making. Keep trying new things in your business. And I will see [00:24:00] you next week.
If you're an artist who wants to sell and market your work more effectively, join us in the Metaphor Mindset Studio, an online program for artists who want to love their business as much as they love their art.
