Personal Thoughts on the Local Artist Community Today

As a child, I’ve always been inclined to sketching, painting and drawing. Growing up I found my joy in many art forms including henna, photography, mandalas and zentangle. I think art has this ability to attract you to its many forms, and I find that to be a beautiful thing. I never really understood how I would pursue this passion of mine. Truth is, I had no plan, I did art for the love of art. I still don’t have a clear direction, but I’m definitely willing to put in the effort to create a side business with my passion. Being someone with little to no entrepreneurial skills, I find this struggle to be one shared among many artists today. Whether that’s marketing, social media, building a brand...it’s all too confusing in a competitive world where art is very un-welcomed as a profession. Truth of the matter is we still live with the stigma that being an “artist” is not a real job or better said, it’s not a real profession. Our institutions haven’t done much to support art students, and our communities have continuously discouraged art as a career putting artists in a stressful situation. In the pursuit of what they love, artists face many challenges, both internal and external. Inferior complexities, pressure from social media, lack of community support and most importantly, under appreciation of artists.

Maybe we’re going towards improvement, maybe not. I’m currently unsure. However, the problem stems from the competitive environment created for artists. With social media it’s so easy to compare yourself with another. One post can tear your self-esteem or make it. This environment has convinced many artists to quit. Most feel like “they’re not good enough” and that’s because it’s so easy to look at someone else’s achievements and feel your hard work is nothing.

Art has so many definitions today. It’s become this broad category that many people have started exploring. We have advanced our creativity to digital forms as well, and I feel like we’re undergoing a huge art revolution. However, because many artists aren’t equipped with the right entrepreneurial skills, only a few make it out there in the competition. We’ve got so much talent in every community, however only some makes it to the discover page on Instagram. Not all artists get the chance to sell their paintings for millions of dollars - there’s a lot of talent that gets filtered out. Artist communities need to work on supporting each other in this competitive environment by helping with marketing and sharing the works of other artists. We need to create a strong community that can withstand capitalistic views and cultural stigma. By working to equip our artists with correct entrepreneurial skills, an artist's work will get paid what it deserves. The fear of financial stress will alleviate an artist from the bubble of societal constraints and allow them to express their creativity.