Well, here is another weekly dose of honesty in the hope that it is useful and helpful to other artists and Indie Business owners (fully inspired by the honest and open discussions in the Indie Roller podcasts that I am currently bingeing my way through).
As I said in my last blog, I took a nice step back over the festive season to decide how I wanted to push my art practice forward for 2020. A part of this includes being more selective with the exhibitions and fairs that I attend, as well as focussing on the pieces that I really enjoy producing and want to progress (rugs and wall hangings… so lots of fluffy goodness), sounds simple. But one thing that I hadn’t taken in to consideration is how much this change in how I work would cause…
Imposter Syndrome
Sounds crazy right, how can I go from feeling happy and confident in my art and what I do, to feeling like a little bit of an imposter? I have been talking to friends and family about my plans for 2020 (which I am really excited and positive about), but find I am explaining myself and ‘selling’ why I want to change and evolve what I am doing. I even went to my favourite creative meet up at epanoui and it felt like I was going along as a newbie all over again as I had tweaked my business (cue long rambling story about what I do and how I got there to ANYONE that asked… sorry guys)!
What is the magic answer?
Spoiler alert I don’t have any magic answer, but I am lucky enough that the art that I am producing now is similar to work that made me super proud… so why the sudden change? Firstly, even a small change and taking ownership of the progression of your art or business is a scary thing to do, so I need to own my decision, get behind it and be kinder to myself about it. Secondly, I think I was measuring my success and my worth by how busy I was, not what made me happy and helped me to progress my business and my art, whether I knew it at the time or not (not the first time I have fallen in to this trap and it is SO easy to do, so if this sounds like you, don’t beat yourself up about it)!
What is important to you?
So that is an update on where I am this week, mostly incredibly grateful that I can recognise all of this Imposter Syndrome rearing its ugly head for exactly what it is and use it rather than run away from it, I hope this little bit of honesty may help some of you too.
On that note…
So on that note… what else do you want to hear about on this blog? What do you want to know? Do you want to see other artists interviews to look in to this lovely creative industry a little more, delve in to what makes them tick too… Maybe a bit more about the process I go through to create my Textiles Art? Thought processes behind what I make, the possibilities are endless, so let me know what you want to see either on social media, in the comments below or email studio@hannahheys.com with BLOG SUGGESTIONS in the heading.
Thanks for making it all the way to the end!