Making art as if you're already being paid for it
Your job, your devotion, your wellbeing
[English content below this first video] - Pour mes lecteur.rices francophones, j’ai pour vous cette semaine sur Youtube, une heure de Masterclass gratuite, à coup de journaling, de visualisation et de pratiques somatiques, “Art, abondance et ancrage”, pour identifier, dénouer et libérer une de vos croyances limitantes autour de votre rapport à l’art et l’argent. C’est ici:
When hoping for, or starting a professional career in the arts, there is a difficult line to tread, between not letting the career-minded brain invade the creation - i.e. trying to make art to please an audience, or to orchestrate, manipulate and create a thing that ‘should’ make money - and at the same time, considering as a serious and devoted professional path that will support us in the future.
One minute to tap into your inner peace current and not create from the mind, scarcity and fear:
With most art forms, the road to actually being paid for one’s art, may be very long and with potentially a lot more uncertainty than other entrepreneurial endeavours. It might take three to five years to write a novel and get it ready for publishing or self-publishing. It could be 10 years for a film to be released in cinemas. Several years to put together an art exhibition or an album, etc. While the self-publishing process is accelerating and facilitating some of these timelines, it remains a leap of faith to sit down, start doing the thing, and keep at it, for one day, perhaps, receive income from it.
This knowing may lead us into many patterns that we would have preferred to avoid around our art, preventing us to start, to carry on, to dare, to do something different, to do it the way we want to do it, to rush the process or stay stuck in it… But what if we started to consider, to imagine that we are already being paid for it, by doing it ; that our future self and creations are paying us in the now, how would we then do, create, make, behave in and around our art?
For myself, I know, I would be even more devoted, I would take it more seriously, I would take it more lightly and I would take care of myself better. A realisation that leaves me pondering how I would show up to my art, if I were paid for it, if I received a creative grant, or artist minimum income as it has been experimented with in Ireland in the past couple of years, how I could be the best boss to my inner artist I could be, and what I could start implementing right now, despite this income being in the future so far.
How would I show up to my art and life if I were already paid for it? How would you?
To have dedicated time and space for my writing
I have a writing studio since the beginning of the year and I’m so grateful
Although I have yet to read Virginia Woolf’s, A room of One’s Own, this is something I have known to be essential for my process, for my art and peace. I’m already quite good at doing it, even if there is always a need for ameliorations and accommodations, and it was a long road to get there. Sometimes, the actual physical space and time are hard to come by, and I completely understand that; I have been there. I have written on my couch, in my kitchen, in my bed, in trains, in people’s home and hostels, and on my dining table for far too long, and I still continue to do so. Sometimes, the flow of a transient space is exactly what we need to go back to, or what we happen to have access to, and that is perfectly ok. But we can start small, we can be intentional about it and open the energies for more, in time, if we wish so. It could simply be a dedicated notebook for our art, a separate folder on the computer desktop, a candle we light up only when we create, to make it our special art time, a coffeeshop we like to go at to write, a nook in our room with a pillow, fifteen minutes before we start our day, one Saturday a month… It doesn’t have to be huge to start, to be a devotion.
These days, most of my mornings are dedicated to writing, and I’m making space for more, allowing bit by bit for the artist to revel in art and writing when she feels like it, in afternoons, at nights, or in weekends. It’s always an unlearning, and a relearning.
What time and space would you dedicate to your art, if you considered yourself already being paid for it?
To make space for inspiration, daydreaming and recharging the artist everyday
Drawing and reading in the sun at the park
I write better and more efficiently early in the morning, IF, and mostly only if, I don’t force myself to overwork on other tasks over the rest of the day. That doesn’t mean I’m not doing anything else than writing, but it does mean than reading, staring at the ceiling, playing and experimenting with other art forms, daydreaming, consuming art in all its forms (and yes that includes TV-shows), going on long walks, spending time with friends and my love, should be part of my daily schedule, and not treats that I try to pack in on evenings and weekends. This is something that have been made evident to me this summer, and that I’m trying to introduce more and more of, instead of automatically diving into a never-ending to-do list because it’s an afternoon during the week. I’m currently teaching my nervous system that’s it’s ok to rest, to chill, to undo, to contemplate, to be, and it’s not a straight line habit-creation. As many of us, I have to unlearn that doing, when I can do, is what makes me worthy to society and people around me. I understand that the lesson here, is that not only am I paid to write, but that as a writer and artist, I’m also paid to read, to dream, to play, to marvel, to chill, to experience arts and the world on a daily basis.
So I read books, I go to shows and exhibitions, I allow arts, wonder and being in, as much as I can. Again, you can start small or through dedicated moments, like an artist date. (We do this in ARTemis, my shamanism and art program to reveal and reclaim your Artist)
What would your artist need for inspiration and refueling every day if you were paid for your art?
This reflection was partly inspired by this Substack letter: On finding your Own Rythm
To give myself deadlines and schedules
Without it being too much of a forcible constraint, or building impossible deadlines to meet, which would be my usual tendency - creating impossible deadlines I will fail to meet and therefore sending myself in a loop of shame, and being stuck - I would give myself reasonable and adjustable deadlines, that I could and would follow through with, or adjust if needed.
A few weeks ago, I drew up an irrational schedule, thinking I would move faster than I thought on my novel, and wanting to force myself to be done with it. I have yet to go back to the studio, sit down with myself, and be a good boss in setting reasonable, realistic, and compassionate schedules and expectations. I seemed to have moved through some creative self-doubt blocks in the last couple of weeks, which will allow me to finally make progress, without being too perfectionist, and therefore stuck. If I were already paid for it, I wouldn’t force crazy schedules, or on the opposite end of the spectrum, procrastinate those schedules. Progress would be more organic, safe and flowy.
How would you handle your progress if you were already paid for your art?
Being stuck and plateauing by forcing with my editing word count vs making slow and steady progress
To support my health, my rest, my joy, my humanity
Although for milleniums, work, nature and lives have been dehumanized through forcing, pillaging, overtaking, we are here to reinvent new ways of being, working and creating, and as a good boss, or CEO of a company, my values wouldn’t be to exploit my workers and creators, but to support everyone’s life, purpose, learning, growth and communities, building a healthy, thriving and joyful ecosystem, much as the mycelium does. Work, art, isn’t supposed to tax my life, health and relationships, but rather grow harmoniously with myself, my creations, my desires, my purpose and my communities. Again, this is an ongoing learning and unlearning, and we shouldn’t shame ourselves for not being there yet, as individuals or collectives, but rather teach, learn and grow together towards that.
This reflection as been inspired by my reading the book Unmasked: The Ultimate Guide to ADHD, Autism and Neurodivergence, by Ellie Middleton and her reflections around work accommodations for neurodivergent people, making me realise how harsh and not compassionate I was being to myself, in regards to arts, and the accommodations I should start giving to myself.
As an employee to my art, or rather as a steward in service to our art, I’ve always been a big proponent of taking holidays, weekends, offline and silent days, for entrepreneurs and artists, after burning out in my first entrepreneurial endeavour. It’s important to remember that and to actually implement it, as it’s too easy, as a passionate creative to get lost in one’s own work, to work late, too much, to not allow space for rest, for play, for holidays, for being sick, for having our moons… We remain sensitive humans and not machines. This does not have to follow the 9-5 model we have been taught, nor the Monday to Friday schedule, nor the 5 weeks holidays a year. You make the rules. And this should include mental health days, period days, sick days, etc.
Writing slow by the seaside
I received my first royalty report from Spotify and my audiobook L’Envol last week, while I was having fun on an artist date in Glasgow, and although it was a tiny amount, it was an opened door and a great reminder that, once on this path, we can and we will at some point make money while we rest, while we play, while we sleep, and that we don’t have to always be present and doing to receive.
Subsequently, we proceeded to have COVID, I went on to have a bad indigestion, then my period, and for the past three weeks, things haven’t been running smoothly or productively. And yet, if I was already being paid for my art, I would be paid through it all and could, would, should allow myself to rest, recuperate, without stressing about the future.
How much rest, holidays, space for your health would you allow in your life, if you were already paid for your art?
Mental health, accommodations, and to follow my own rhythm and processes
Whether neurodivergent or not, we all have different rhythms and processes of life and creations, as we do purposes, that may evolve through life, cycles of the moons, and seasons. I’ve always been, and will be, a proponent of learning to follow our own rhythms and processes, to get back to our most authentic voices, art and purposes, but also to find comfort and ease within our bodies. Every time we repress the voice of our bodies, for a ‘should’, for convention, for people pleasing, we send our souls and inner voices further away into burial.
It is an exploration, it is evolving, it is adaptable to circumstances and communities, it is intentional, but being paid for my art, I would follow even more deeply and with more authenticity, my rhythms of creation, allowing myself to create early in the morning, to sometimes create on weekends, to take creative and playful pauses, to sit weird in my chair, to have noise-cancelling headphones, to be in silence or listen to body-doubling and handpan videos at the same time, to play with a stim toy, to travel and create, to do it the same every day or differently every day… It feels like an expansion of freedom, a softening and an opening trying to come in, and with it, the capacity to better take care of myself, my inner child and my mental health.
Join me in cosy and quiet co-writing body-doubling session by the seaside:
What would following your own process and rhythm look like?
To support my body, my mind, my soul in resting, refueling, learning and growing
Much like a community ecosystem, we have to resource ourselves first, to be able to give back to our communities and our art. It’s a reciprocal flow, of give and take, much like abundance and love, flowing from one’s heart to an other’s, in an infinite mirror and expansion.
To be the best artist I can be, and be the best boss I can be, I would support and resource myself in training, growing, resetting and refueling of all the parts of myself. This means supporting my body through for example massages, somatic or energetic work, healthy and fueling food, taking care and nourishing, sports, nervous system work; my mind by therapy, coaching, trainings, books, etc., my soul with shamanic and spiritual work, whether to reset, find peace, grow and play. I am an eternal student, and this is and will be part of my resourcing my artist. As we grow, expand, and hold more as artists and creators, as we give more to the world and our communities, we also need to learn to receive more and know how to resources ourselves.
An algae is an autotroph, which means it creates its own nutrient and energy, resourcing itself with sunlight and sediments, mostly being, without moving or exerting itself. How can we learn from algae and autotroph beings?
How would you resource yourself if you were paid for it?
To follow the organic energy and rhythm of my art and creations
Our art, our ideas, our creations follow their own rhythm, which is not typically set on a linear timeline, nor on the schedule we wish to impose on it. If I were to consider I was already paid for my art, it would reinforce in me this knowing that my art is on its own schedule, that ideas, new creative outlets and flow come as they please, and that I can’t force them in a box, until they are ready.
Tapping into the peace undercurrent of your art, before filtering it through your own lens (the full teaching here):
How would your art and creations look different if you were already being paid for it?
To give back to other artists, to your communities and to the world
One thing is obvious, when abundance reaches us, we want to give back in whatever form we can or are able to. I have started reading the wonderful Let’s become Fungal: Mycelium teachings and the arts, by Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodriguez, and in the first teachings, she shares how harvesting plants that are in abundance, makes space for other plants to grow.
When we are resourced, when we are abundant, when we are already paid for our art, or acting as if it’s already there, not only are we abundant and sharing with our communities in an abundant mindset, but by harvesting, we are making space for other people, that might need light, grants, help, wisdom, teachings, resourcing, etc.
If we were to be paid, if I were to be paid for my art, how would I give back, share my knowledge, my learnings, my abundance, how would we do it? This is what I have started to do here and on Youtube, sharing my time, my knowledge, my peace, but also letting monetary gains flow back into the community too. The more abundant and resourced I am, the more I can share and flow it back into the world.
In what ways would you share, if you were abundant, peaceful and resourced?
There are only a few ideas that this reflection led me on. I’m also thinking about the fact that I would delegate some actions too, wether it be graphic design, or cleaning my house. I’m also pondering the fact that more ideas would have space to come in and grow, instead of thinking about how to make it at the end of the month. I would love to know in the comments what these reflections lead you towards, so we can share knowledge and ideas.
This is not only an exercise in style, and I guarantee that carrying this reflection for yourself can open new doors, new mindsets and new accommodations for your own practice, albeit holding in thoughts, in energy, and in the future, your future earnings and expansion, because that’s what you are working towards, with every step you take towards your art.
I wish for us artists and creators to build our own ecosystem, for ourselves, for our art, for our worlds and for our communities, starting to grow together an infinite and reciprocal loop of abundance, heart and art. Are you in?
With much love,
Lucie
ARTemis is my six months to a year shamanic and arts program to reveal and reclaim your Artist. You can find out more here and ask me any questions you’d like.