Should You Quit Art or Not? The Surest Way to Tell

​This may seem, I don’t know ~ stuck up, or, I don’t know. Like I’m full of it ~ and I suppose (like all artists? lol) I am. But there are times I feel like there doesn’t seem to be any, advice out there for artists like me.

I mean, not that I’m anything special, you know. (Although at the rate AI is going maybe artists like me will soon be extinct lol, in which case… lol not that anyone would care? Haha) Painters and sometime illustrators like me are a dime a dozen.

It’s just, I see a lot of advice out there for young artists, or artists who are just starting out (like maybe you picked it up or started to give more time to it after retirement).

This one guy on YouTube who I admire very much mentioned something like, an artist who’s been at it for, oh, 18 months and is on the verge of giving up ~ months? Try 18 years lol.

Although it’s comforting to know that there are lots of other artists out there who have to work a day job to make ends meet (and who aren’t shamed for it, I hope).

And it’s also comforting to see folks out there encouraging their fellow artists to just hang in there and keep at it ~ even if things aren’t working out the way they planned, or hoped, or have seen it work out for other ‘more successful’ artists.
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Because lemme tell you ~ the temptation to just give up is very, very real

Allow me to unpack that statement a bit: I used the word ‘temptation’ and I alluded to the reality of it, which suggests that maybe ‘all this’ is just in your head. (Although arguably, the lion’s share of what goes into making art really is in an artist’s head, isn’t it?)

So first, temptation. For me, when you say ‘temptation’ it involves something bad. You feel like doing something you know you shouldn’t.

So obviously there’s a lot to unpack there and I’m like the last person on earth anyone (including myself) would regard as any sort of authority on, you know ~ morality or ethics or something ~

But maybe, just regarding ‘feeling like giving up’ in itself, also presupposes something else. For me, maybe that something is like, a dream or a commitment, a promise you made ~ to yourself. Somehow I feel like ‘dream’ is even more precious than ‘commitment’.

But anyway, I would define a dream, in this context, as something you want very, very, very, very, very, very badly. Something you want soooooooooo much. You feel like you would die (or at least be real miserable lol) if you didn’t have it.

So that promise or commitment would be what you do to make sure you get it.
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So how is this a temptation?

Now I’m not saying everything we want, being finite, fallible beings, is good (again, not a moralist, no PhD in Theology here). But for the sake of argument (or rather just for this post) ~ what you want is something you think is good or at the very least, makes you feel good.

So feeling like you want to deprive yourself of that (perceived) good ~ is ‘bad’.

So if art is and has always been your dream, and you’ve committed to it, or promised yourself that you would do it, then…

…feeling like you want to give up can be a real, a sore temptation.

Put another way ~ a lot of folks these days talk about one’s ‘inner child’ a lot, or something like that (I’ve no PhD in psychology or something, either). If you’ve promised ~ formally or not ~ yourself that you would ‘do this art thing’ ~ and you give it up ~ then you’ve broken your promise.

Breaking your promises is a bad thing, last I checked. And for me, betraying a child (your inner child included) is even worse.

So yes, for me, we could call it ‘the temptation’ to give up.
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So how is this real?

I guess the easiest way to define what’s real is to compare it with what’s fake. You put a real flower next to fake flowers, a flesh-and-blood arm next to a prosthesis, the sushi in the restaurant window next to the sushi on your plate ~ and you can tell.

Sometimes artists kid around about giving up. ‘Oh so and so said my work sucked ~ might as well give up and marry the boss’ daughter.’

Or wait. Come to think of it, I can’t say I actually know anybody who’s ever said anything like that. Because just now I was thinking of segueing into something like, ‘I just don’t know if all this is worth it anymore’ ~ and that once you start ‘kidding around like that’ ~ a lot ~ then maybe it’s serious.

Maybe it’s real.

Isn’t that what they say about love? (Don’t ask me, I wouldn’t know, lol.)

Because maybe, having this dream or this commitment isn’t something a lot of us would even think of kidding around about. Or, maybe those of us who wouldn’t are just taking ourselves way too seriously and need to lighten the f- - - up ^^

I’ll admit there have been times in my life when I’d felt just a teensy bit sensitive when (hopefully) ingenuous people would, you know. Kind of make me feel like (as Conan Doyle put it) ‘an abstruse and learned specialist who finds that he has been called in for a case of measles.’

(Okay I’m not just full of it but a b- - - - too.)

Seriously, though ~ if you find yourself ~ okay, I won’t say ‘kidding around’. But if you catch yourself thinking about just packing it in and trading in your brushes for a briefcase (or whatever the tools of the trade are for an alternative, non-art job) ~ and you catch yourself doing this a lot. Then…
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Temptation is not a sin, but…

I was taught that when you’re tempted, you’re not sinning ~ as long as you resist. Once you give in or start entertaining the temptation, then you’re in trouble. But see, here’s the thing. Sometimes, it’s your own fault that you’re tempted in the first place ~ in that way, you’re culpable.

Say for instance, you’re supposed to skip sugar because you’re diabetic. You know you can’t have sweeties, but you head on out to Candy World anyways. If you’re tempted to grab a Snickers bar or a Chupa Chups or two, well, that’s your own fault for ‘innocently happening to drop by’.

So maybe you’re tempted to throw in the towel. You might even start to go down that rabbit hole and think about what it would be like to ‘not art’ anymore. What you’d do with all that extra time (and sleep) ~ and moolers that you would’ve spent on paint and gear and so on.

You’d be able to maybe, get out more. Try other things. Pursue another career. Heck, maybe even make more moolers. Maybe all the folks who might have told you to ‘get a real job’ or something would finally leave you alone. (But I doubt it, lol.)

Then maybe it comes to a point where you would actually ‘become culpable’ by actually putting yourself in situations where you avoid making art. Instead of showing up at the studio, for instance, you suddenly have other things to do (which might include hanging out with those ‘get a real job’-ers).

Giving in to all that is undeniably easier. It’s the path of least resistance. To just stop struggling and working so hard ~ would just be so much easier.
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Now (finally) comes the acid test ~ the surest way to tell

This is the part where you ask yourself ~ how do you feel about that? (Sounds like therapy LOL)

No, seriously ~ ask yourself, not really in words, but try to, observe what you feel when you think about simply not being an artist anymore. (‘Observe’ is a word my other doctor uses a lot, too LOOOL)

Take a moment to ‘get in touch with your feelings’ (babe! ^o^)

If even just thinking about quitting makes you feel downright miserable, then you shouldn’t quit.

In fact, if you can’t even imagine what your life would be like without art ~ and I don’t mean just owning it or looking at it or appreciating it as a fan (or a ‘layman’ (for lack of a better term). I mean really making, creating things of your own, bringing what’s in your brain out into the world with your own two hands (or whatever appendage or body part you use).

If you can’t even set foot into the aforementioned rabbit hole ~ then quitting art is not for you.

I mean, you could still try it, certainly. But I just don’t think it’s sustainable, i.e. you won’t be able to stay away for very long. Not without feeling like you wanna jump off a cliff ^^
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So now you can tell ~ so now what?

Again, I’m no guru, no PhD, no nothing. But at this point in my practice (or at least, in my life), I think I can say ‘look, I get it.’

It’s hard. It really is. There’s no two ways about it. Art is an uphill slog for many if not most, if not all of us (no matter how ‘successful’ you are). You have to fight to get what’s in your head out in front of an audience, especially when you don’t feel like putting in the effort to even just throw the first punch.

I wish to death there was something nice or easy I could tell you, wish I could just ‘kiss and make it better’ ~ the temptation goes away and you automatically feel like you’re the greatest artist in the world! And you can do anything <3

But there isn’t. Not anything that would be sincere. All I can say (for what it’s worth) is that

1. You’re not alone, and
2. At least now you know for sure (because for me, uncertainty is just the worst), and
3. Knowing for sure that you mustn’t give up, has to count for something

And something is better than nothing, desho? It’s better than starting from scratch. That is, when you start to pick yourself back up and start again ~ or continue!

Maybe, the continuing will be slow. Maybe, you won’t create as much (as you would like, or used to). Maybe what you make from here on out (at least for now) won’t be like, the best-est things you’ve ever done (and it won’t be long before it’s picked up by the Guggenheim).

But it’ll still be the embodiment of your determination to not give up on your dream and to keep the promise you made to yourself, to your inner (insert your childhood nickname [HERE]).

It’ll show that you didn’t give up. You didn’t give in. You did not quit. And that you will always be ~ an artist.
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