Blog
Artist as Introvert
"Alaska Range II", Oil, 8 x 10
I am an introvert, and for me, painting requires a cushion of time--time to think, to be by myself, to muse, to roam the house in search of food, to drink tea, to read art books--a lot of time surrounding the main event--painting. Thus I can feel the anxiety rising when I read all the expert newsletters about marketing for the artist--advice exhorting (on pain of death of all my possibilities) the concept of newsletters and blogs, and facebook and twitters and... just when I've managed to divest of all the detours from my painting road: stopped writing software--check! stopped getting involved in environmental/political issues--check! kids in college--check!
I am an introvert, and for me, painting requires a cushion of time--time to think, to be by myself, to muse, to roam the house in search of food, to drink tea, to read art books--a lot of time surrounding the main event--painting. Thus I can feel the anxiety rising when I read all the expert newsletters about marketing for the artist--advice exhorting (on pain of death of all my possibilities) the concept of newsletters and blogs, and facebook and twitters and... just when I've managed to divest of all the detours from my painting road: stopped writing software--check! stopped getting involved in environmental/political issues--check! kids in college--check!
Now I get a news article in my box regaling me about what I missed by not going to a marketing workshop. Another "10 must do things" to promote my art. I get these newsletters and store them in a folder on my hard drive--mostly without reading them. I have a tendency to save things because I might need them later. But I think it is time to unsubscribe.
I decide to Google a pressing topic: "introverts" + "facebook." I need to find out if others experience the same thing I do--that facebook just represents more clutter--and here's what I find--an article entitled: “Social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace are turning Britons into introverts a new study warns.” Casting aside my certainty that the authors have mischaracterized the term "introvert," I am struck by the notion that introversion might be as bad as the swine flu, and is catching. Is that how the extrovert world thinks about people like me? Apparently I am at a serious disadvantage.
So what to do if I want to start an artist blog? Pretend that I am a self-confident extrovert or let all my indecision and uncertainty, my not wanting to talk about myself, hang out to dry in the cyber wind? Or not do it at all. Or do it next week. I go into my studio, now overwhelmed by anxiety--how can I even paint. I think maybe I have to go through the 12-step Artist Way program again. Eventually I pick up the brush and begin. All the anxiety goes away.
