Top 3 Reasons To Be A Solo Artist

Some say that it's better to go it alone in life.  After all, you only have yourself to take care of, nothing to hold you down, and plus you get to take all the credit for yourself.  Who would want to find a close-knit, supportive community of artists?  Who wants artist friends or a support group of others who have been there and done that?

We assume you don't, so today, we wanted to bring you the top 3 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Find An Artist Community.

1.  You Don't Want To Get Far

Finding a community of artists, whether it's in person or via online, usually helps you create connections with other artists.  Monkey + Seal have found that through these connections, we've been able to both help careers along, as well as be helped ourselves.  Through our networks, we've found jobs, gigs, cool new opportunities, and friends.  So if you don't want any of that, and you want to slave away by yourself doing everything the hardest way possible, please, by all means, stay away from communities.

By communities, we mean don't find friends who like to go to gallery openings, or don't join online communities like Deviant Art or various Facebook and LinkedIn Groups.  If you went to art school, make sure you cut off all contact with your classmates and former teachers, and don't take part in any alumni groups or meet-ups.

For the love of all that is holy, make sure you stay away from communal art groups, or drawing meet-ups, or any sort of art making that might happen in a public place with other people - these are the most dangerous of all if you want to fly solo.

2.  You Enjoy Artists' Block

Often times, when we get stuck in the process of creating, besides pushing through it, an easy way to get past it is to find new inspiration, or ask for help from other artists who you trust.  We're sure you can see where we're going with this.

If you enjoy the gut-wrenching frustration of Artists' Block, be sure to not make other artist friends who you can get opinions from.  Definitely don't live with another artist, as we've found that living together has shattered our Artists' Block countless times.

Other artists provide new insights into our own work, or perhaps they might share a resource that might inspire you or give you more information that you needed to push through.  Maybe a fresh pair of eyes might help that composition you were struggling with, or maybe they've worked with an epoxy that might help out your sagging sculpture that you've been fighting.

So please, if you just absolutely love getting stuck and not being able to get past the block that stops you, make sure that you don't make other friends who are artists!

3. You Love Feeling Unsafe and Like Poop

Multiple rejections are a part of being a professional artist.  Our field is highly subjective, and having a barrage of blows to your self-confidence can be crippling if you're by yourself.  Obviously, if you love feeling beat down and potentially scared to make art, having a group of like-minded people alongside you to remind you that your art IS VALUABLE and IS IMPORTANT would not be your cup of tea.

Having a network of other people who have been there, or are there fighting alongside you can help restore your confidence.  Hearing stories of successful artist friends who have also been rejected or have had to submit portfolios again and again to finally land that dream job can really help someone who is going through the rough time that being an artist can entail.  So if you don't like to feel great and be reminded about how totally subjective our field is, then please, stay away from artist communities.

You need to be especially wary of having good artist friends who are willing to honestly and safely critique your work when you are trying new things.  Whether it's a new style, subject matter, or new medium, showing it to your core group of trusted artist homies probably isn't a good thing if you want to be ruthlessly beat down and told you suck.  If you want to feel like crap, create for a void, where you will have no one to validate your ideas, and you can let that monstrous whirlwind of self-doubt win out over your logical mind and crush your artistic dreams forever.

So please, dear artists, if you have any disregard for your own artist's soul, your artistic well-being, your ability to create, or your professional career, please, stay away from finding your tribe.  Don't make close friends who you can trust to nurture your art and your vision.  Stay away from artist communities that foster new work and will help you grow both as an artist and a professional.  Please, please, please do not continue to read this blog, as Monkey + Seal are working to create a new community of artists who are supportive and caring over competitive and criticizing.  Don't look for our new updates on how to become members of the upcoming online cabal of artists!

How to Rid Yourself of Wet Blankets

Do you know someone who constantly brings down the mood? Someone who might make you feel insecure about yourself, or your dreams, or your job, or anything? Basically, do you know any wet blankets?

Chances are, unfortunately, that you probably do. Not all are malicious on purpose, most actually aren't. Some might try to help with unsolicited advice ("You know, you could make a lot more money as a doctor than as an artist. You should really think about medicine." Another type of wet blanket is the kind that tries to make everything a competition, even when it's not. Others might spout lots of statistics that rains on your parade ("You know, art schools have a high graduation rate, but only x% actually get an art job after graduating.") Still other wet blankets might get your goat by saying things in false support like "I'm not telling you not to follow your dream," or "Yeah, that painting looks pretty good, but...oh nevermind, it's great, honest!"

Poo poo on these wet blanket! "But Monkey +Seal," you might be thinking, "of course poo poo on them, but how do I deal with these jerk-face donkey butts?" Well then, if you are thinking that, you must read on!

So, how to deal with wet blankets? There are a few ways to doing this. The first is protecting yourself from wet blankets before you even really have to deal with them. If you can identify these people early on, don't share you ideas with them because you know they'll shoot them down. What's the point in being generous with people who will try to bring you down? There is none! Don't show your dance recital to people who are gonna hate on your choreography, and don't take your sketchbook out of your bag around people who are gonna take it without asking and then criticize your drawings. Skip the jerkwads!

"But Monkey and Seal, what if I work with these buttholes?" Well friend, if you are in a situation where you can't just avoid the party-poopers, you need to identify their behavior as what it is to emotionally distance yourself from them. If you absolutely have to listen to the poop they're gonna say, if you brace yourself for the idiocy, you can create some emotional distance. It'll still be crappy, and you should try to avoid wet blankets if you can, but if you have to deal with them, here's some more tips:

You have to realize that the reason these people are wet blankets and keep hating on you is that whether they know it or not, it's not really about you at all. When someone is harping on your dreams, or your art, or basically just bringing you down, most of the time it's not really about you, but it's about them.

You see, you have to remind yourself that it's their own lame worldview and sad paradigms - they're really just unhappy with themselves and they tend to take it out on everyone else. Their ideas are never awesome enough, so they have to make sure that you know that yours aren't either. Maybe they're unhappy with themselves or were discouraged somewhere along the line, but regardless they're just downers, and it really has nothing to do with the quality of you or your work.

Alternatively, if their garbage-talk is bringing you down, you need to honor your emotions and take care of yourself. Identify the negativity and call it out for what it really is: pure negativity and self-hatred (on their part). Others will want to quickly patch you up by saying "Oh, it's a learning experience," or maybe "Well, that's sorta standard in this industry," or "That's just how he is," but NO! Don't listen to them! The wet blanket is a wet blanket, and that's that!

Administer some self-care stat! Go take a bath with your rubbery ducky, or snuggle with your blankey, or do whatever it is that you do to make yourself all cheery and happy inside. Eat a pint of vegan ice cream and wash it down with some cookies! Take a shot (or two, or three, but only if you aren't driving or have something you need to get done later). Whatever it is, make your inner kid happy.

If all else fails, talk to someone who is going to support you and help you remember that the wet blanket is the crazy person, not you. If you don't know if you can trust anyone, there's always a therapist (or you could also vent via email to us).

Finally, sometimes push comes to shove, and the wet blanket just needs to get put in their place. You officially have Monkey + Seal's blessing to put up a fight if need be. You can call them out on their poopy behavior and regardless of whether or not your actions change their behavior, your heart will know that you stood up for yourself, and that's a really powerful step in itself. Besides, if you call them out in front of a lot of people in a way that isn't full of name-calling, but is very factual, you can very possibly shame them into reform.

So avoid your wet blankets and love yourself. Don't try to dry out the wet blanket, it'll only get smelly and mildewy and eventually will become a wet blanket again. Dangerous!

Protecting Your Art

As an artist, it's important to protect yourself and your art during the early stages of creativity and surround yourself with people who support your dreams. Once you've got a good start and are towards the middle of your project, it is then helpful to ask other artists to constructively critique your work, in order to evolve.

As an artist, the art of creating is very personal and vulnerable. So it's important that especially during the first early stages to be selective in who you share your work with. Often, the art needs time to mature, to brew, to cultivate the right way of being expressed. Too many artists make the mistake of exposing this early idea to everyone they know. It's natural to want approval or encouragement/ feedback to keep going. But you want to make sure that it's the right person. At this early stage, it's better to jump and go ahead and explore the idea. Risk being wrong.

Have you ever had a brilliant idea, a wonderful dream, and you run to someone who you think would listen to you and tell them all about it, only to get the wet-blanket response, "eh." A complete and utter disregard, a crushing silence, or even a "well-meaning advice" of "well that's kind of already done before . . . " or "how about this, you can do it this way. . . " Too many projects are crushed this way. It's much to early even for you, the artist, to judge the work.

You need to draw a circle and protect the work. For example, time and time again, Seal had shown her early ideas to the wrong people. These were often the people closest to her, people whom she had trust. Sometimes they were straight out negative, competitive, or plain clueless in being able to help the artwork. Especially people who don't understand the process of art would look at the early scribbles, first knitted scarf, or failed experiments and judge it as if it was already finished. Or compare your beginning drawings to a great master. ("Well, this certainly isn't a Michelangelo"). Sometimes well-meaning friends and relatives would like to be "helpful" and push their advice unto you, without being asked. "It would be better if you did this." While you will need some of this constructive criticisms later on in the work, when you are just starting on a project, it's best to show it only to people who trusts in your abilities and potential.

Seal knows that she can show Monkey, her ugly-duckling early sketches of her work before they become full swans. She knows that Monkey will be supportive, and say "yeah, go ahead and explore that." (It may not be the "best idea in the world," but at least it's one more idea that was explored.) The worse thing that can happen is that it doesn't work out.

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Once you get going on your project. You'll come to a point where you don't know where else to take it. Or you've come up to your limits regarding your skills/knowledge, etc. At this time, is a good time to get constructive criticism. People who won't just be "nice" and say the work is "cool," without giving you ways to improve upon it. You want to be surrounded by people who won't settle, who want to make their own artwork better. And at the same time, the criticisms must be done in such a way that is constructive, specific, and have a respect towards you, the artist, and the work.

There is a difference between specific objective criticisms to the work than a subjective comment. A bad criticism is when its shrouded in generality and attacks the person and not the art: "I don't know what to tell you, it just doesn't work." or "something about this is off" or "this is bad art." (any of these comments don't really tell you "why, they think the way they do" and "how to fix it."

An example of good criticism: My mentor would always look at my work and ask me first, "what's your intention here?" That way he understands where the work is coming from. Then he proceeds to give me concrete feedback based on an action I can take forward. "If your intention was X, here's Y in how to do it" With good criticisms, there is always 1) a truth (a-ha! I see that, yeah, you're right the color would be better if I saturate it, etc). and 2) specificity about the work itself (never about you the artist), and 3) a clue or answer on how to move forward with the work.

So again, in order to grow as an artist, we must be bold in the beginning stages, stretch our wings and really explore all aspects of our curiosity while being protective of it by only sharing it with people who will be supportive of you. Then after the art has got a good running start, we must find the right kind of people, preferably other creatives like ourselves, who can give us constructive feedback about how to evolve the work.