For many artists, art is one of the top relationships in their life. It is something we have thought about, strived after, suffered for, and been fulfilled by for years, even decades. On this episode, I want to show you how unconditional love for your art can transform your art practice and help you create with the confidence and freedom you desire.
Outline of This Episode
- [5:04] You are in a relationship with your art and the power of unconditional love
- [11:17] Roadblocks to unconditionally loving your art
- [15:37] How unconditional love enhances your art journey
Love creates power
Being in a relationship with your art means you get to define what that relationship looks like. You are in control! Every single day, you are creating an individual relationship with your art through the thoughts you think about it. What would it look like to love your art unconditionally? We often bring so much extra baggage into the studio that doing so may seem out of reach. Sure, we can love our work when it turns out how we expect. Or helps us achieve our next goal. Or gets us into the next gallery. But what would our practice look like if we loved our art no matter what? Think of how free you would feel to just play and create. You would take more risks and have more failed pieces, but you would also exponentially increase your rate of learning and skill development. One of the most important benefits of unconditionally loving your art is that you would likely always have your own back. You would never use your art against yourself, only for yourself. Imagine the power you would have in your studio. You would have the freedom to create whatever you wanted to, and be whatever you wanted to be.
Believe the impossible
So, what are you waiting for? Why haven’t you started loving your art unconditionally yet? It all sounds so amazing, yet so many artists struggle to do it. I think one of the biggest roadblocks to bringing that kind of love into our studios is the fact that many of us never knew it was possible. Artists have been conditioned to believe that they are never good enough. That our work is always just below where it should be. We’re not allowed to like our work if it’s not perfect, and it’s somehow arrogant to accept too much praise for what we paint. This idea of perfection stands in the way of unconditional love because we’ve been convinced that the two are inseparable. The reality is you can decide to love your work even when it doesn’t live up to your ambitions. Loving your art unconditionally isn’t only possible, it’s necessary to become the artist you’ve always wanted to be.
Your art is worthy
Another huge obstacle to unconditionally loving our art is that we often feel like we have to earn it. Isn’t that funny? The very nature of unconditional love is a love without conditions, yet so many artists put all of these conditions around loving their work. Or they make loving their work mean something it doesn’t. Loving your art does not mean that your art is better than someone else’s or that you don’t have room for improvement. You will always find someone who paints better than you. Loving your art is accepting that it has value simply because it’s yours. You created it. It was a thought in your head, and now it exists, simply because you made it so. Your art is worthy, and so are you. Every artist deserves to love their art without having to earn it. Listen to this episode for practical tips on bringing unconditional love into your art practice!
Resources Mentioned on this episode
- The Savvy Painter Growth Studio
- The Savvy Painter Community
