Life Doesn't Have a Montage Or a Magic Pill

We're going to make a bit of an assumption here that we all agree on something: life isn't the movies. No huge protests over that? Okay, good.

So life is not the movies, and we probably wouldn't want it that way. Why? Well, we'd be exhausted all the time if life was that exciting - you know, with all the infiltration of ex-CIA spy rings, escaping from zombies and chainsaw-wielding cannibals, and going to weddings four times a week where something dramatic and shocking happens every single time.

However, there is a type of movie (and television show) that you probably either love or hate (we love 'em): The Underdog genre. You know the story - some total underdog has a dream and manages to gain some sort of trait/advantage/knowledge from their tragic past/current situation and then is able to beat out the seemingly impossible odds to reach their dream. Slumdog Millionaire, One Piece, Paul Potts and Susan Boyle (and now Jonathan Antoine) are all such great entertainment because they tell the story of someone who society says should not succeed but fight for their dream and in the end, come out on top. It makes you feel all inspired and warm and fuzzy inside.

The thing about movies though, is that all the hardship, the long hours, the grueling work - it's all abridged. We usually get to see the training ala-Rocky in the classic montage scene or in the occasional flashback. It's all nicely packages to make you feel good. But when you're done watching, how long does that inspiration last?

More often than not, real life quickly takes over, and you find your canvas untouched, rehearsal seems like such a long bus-ride away, the little cursor blinks over and over again on your blank "Untitled document." We turn to distractions, chores, anything else to keep us from having to sit down and do the work.

We get it: doing the work is hard. Showing up everyday, even if you're tired, is hard. Pushing through the painful/ugly/tedious/annoying stage isn't fun. Playing a concert in a bar with two people watching you is tough. Not selling anything, again, at your gallery show while people snatch up other artists' work is difficult. This is the reason why films have montages. No one wants to watch someone slowly get better over long periods of time. We want to see some action!

But life doesn't have montages. To get better, we have to put in the practice. A lot of people also fall into what we call "The Trap of Beginner's Luck." Chances are, at some point in your life you'll probably find something that comes easy to you. Maybe it's bowling, or painting, or surfing, or singing, or making sculptures out of mashed potatoes. People will tell you that you're really good at it, and that'll make you feel good and want to pursue it more. However, if you do decide to pursue it more and more, you'll find that you're no longer around people who are novices. Suddenly you're around people who practice at their craft, and practice often. Then you realize that you are going to actually have to work at this, and then you get discouraged since you thought that this was going to be easy.

Even if you have decided that "Yes, the hard work is worth it" (and we sincerely hope that you have found something worth working hard for), the challenge to keep up that momentum is still there. Feeling like you're not doing enough? Frustrated that you haven't "made it" (whatever that means) yet? Well, you can't magically make stuff happen over night, and you have so many hours in a day, so there really is only one thing to do: Get over it.

Not to be jerks, but really, that's all you can do. You have to just keep working hard and keep on keeping on. Just keep on practicing, keep on hustling, and keep on chasing your dream, and you will (we promise) slowly get closer and closer.

For a practical solution, keep a journal, or samples of your old work. Seriously. It may sound stupid and a waste of time and space, but make a habit of revisiting your old work at least once a year, and you'll be surprised at the results. We look at stuff we did in our freshman classes (holy crap, that's five year ago!) and the difference to what we do now is amazing. Because we are living our own lives, the changes are imperceptible - we gradually learn more techniques and get more experience under our belt; we put in our 10,000 hours. However, when you compare old work with new work (especially after five years), you'll see how much you've improved.

So while we can't promise a magic pill that'll suddenly find you success, all we can tell you is to keep on fighting the good fight, and before you know it, you'll be leaps and bounds closer to your dream than you would have ever imagined.

How Bad Do You Want to Succeed?

It's the Monkey here again:

First off, this was inspired by this article over at Muddy Colors, a pretty cool illustration blog. While I highly suggest you go take a look, I know some of you don't like clicking blog links (I know I'm usually guilty of that), so I'll summarize for you: Life as an artist is hard, it usually takes on average, 5 years after graduating from art school to really get a stable illustration career. Live inexpensively, and take all the work that you can get.

While this is very, very true and great advice, it sort of brings up the big question: How badly do you want to succeed at this whole "chasing your dream" thing? Because with all the awesomeness that comes along with being able to do what you love for a living, not everyone will be able to do that right out of college. Yes, there are definitely exceptions, and we know lots of illustrators who got picked up by game companies within 3-6 months of graduation. However, that's not going to be the case for everyone, and especially if you want to be a successful fine artist, the road could be even longer assuming the traditional gallery path.

So you have to ask yourself, and be totally honest - are you going to be able to do what you love right now and make a living off of it? Personally, I think that the advice to live inexpensively is great, but when you've got nearly $200,000 in student loans to pay back, living super frugally still doesn't cut it a lot of the time and it's not even living frugally, it's being broke-ass poor.

Now to be totally honest, this is a question that I've found myself asking myself more and more. I'm generally a super happy, go-get-'em type of guy, and this isn't some front that I put on to just try and encourage other artists to go after their dream. I'm not the type to sell you something that I don't believe in. However, we've talked about going through Hell before, and the reason we can talk about stuff like that is because we've gone through it, or in my case, are going through it when we write these posts.

While co-owning a gallery and running the Monkey + Seal shop and co-running a screen printing biz and teaching workshops and doing demos at Paper Source and painting for gallery shows might seem all super awesome and fun and magical, and don't get me wrong, it is most of the time, it's also really, really, really, really fucking hard.

I work, on average, between 50-70 hours a week. I don't usually get entire days off, and if I do, they come about once every three weeks or so. Now yes, some of that time is painting or making prints, or designing a new tie design, or writing blog posts, or updating FB, or whatever, but nevertheless, it is work. I also cannot stop because to be perfectly honest, I'm broke, and if my income comes from the art hustle, I gotta hustle.

There are times where rent is put into jeopardy, and times that I skip meals because I spent all my money on bills or on art supplies or table fees at craft fairs. On good nights I get 6 hours of sleep, on bad nights I get 3-4. I also have to go to my two community college classes twice a week in order to defer my student loan payments.

Don't get me wrong - I'm really happy most of the time as like I said, I get to paint and draw and illustrate and make cool stuff for people for a living. But the cost is that I can't currently afford to travel or take vacations, and I can't stop. I'm constantly worried about money, and that's why I hustle trying to simultaneously make Monkey + Seal, Lords of Print, and Big Umbrella work.

So while this may come off as a whine-fest, it doesn't intend to be one. At any time I could go and apply to office jobs that would pay me enough to get by, or I could do my best to manage a retail store or something like that. All very valid and perfectly okay decisions for some people, but just not me.

But thanks to Eve's tremendous emotional, psychological, and financial support, I'm able to keep on doing what I love, even if it means some great sacrifices at times. And that's why I can't give up. I can't squander everything the lovely Seal and lots of other people have given me. To me, art is (almost) everything.

And while you might think that I'm trying to convince you to give up everything to follow your dream (I'm not), an equally important thing you have to figure out is your limits. How long will you give yourself before you give up? 6 months? 2 years? A decade? Your entire life? What else are you willing to sacrifice to get it? Are you willing to give up the love of your life for your dream? Your friends? Will you leave everything behind and relocate? Personally, I've decided that art is the most important thing in my life - besides Eve. We don't talk about our personal lives a lot on the blog. So while there are a lot of things I'm willing to give up for my art- vacations, eating at fancy restaurants, etc., I'm not willing to give up the little (seal) lady. But whether or not you are in a relationship, figuring out what you're willing to give up is crucial, if only so you know what not to give up.

There is no right or wrong answer to this. Everyone is different, and everyone needs to make up their own boundaries for themselves. The most important part is that you stick to them! Once you break a boundary, it's a slippery slope downhill. Just watch Requiem for a Dream and you'll see what I'm talking about.

So if you're already living the dream, congratulations. If you're not there yet, ask yourself: How bad do you want it, and what are you willing to give up (or: what aren't you willing to give up) to get it?