To Create, To Cultivate, To Evolve

Being able to say that your art is your business is a true blessing. Whether. you are a photographer, poet, musician, painter, writer, designer, and all the inbetweens, our passion is to create. To create, cultivate, and constantly evolve as an artist is part of the journey, but it also is the journey. There are times when you reach an "aha!" moment, and you discover something new that has been missing in your art.

Discoveries and the road to change

The amazing part about making these discoveries is that not only do these discoveries affect your art, but they also affect your business. As your art evolves, is affects your business, your target client's could start to look different, your marketing tactics may have to change if your target clients begin to change, and so on. During ALL THIS CHANGE, you are still evolving as an artist!

All of this possible change can bring a lot of fear to an artist / business owner, and sometimes cause them to be stagnant in their artistry. Don't get me wrong, I think that it is very important to know your clients, see what is popular, and ensure that you are creating work to create traction with the audience. BUT, if you are only creating work for people because you feel like you have to, and you are feeling stagnant and bored in your art, then perhaps it is time to assess why you feel this way.

Do you feel stagnant or bored?

I find that when I feel this way, I need to do either of these things:

1) Take a break

• Have you been working too much?
• Are you skipping meals to answer emails and fulfil the list you need to do?
• Have your relationships been hindered because of your divided attention even when you step away from your work space?

If you are experiencing these things, chances are you're burnt out or about to reach burn out.

I have burned myself out, I have worked too much, I have answered emails and edited photos so much that my relationships have been hindered. When I reach these places, I need to step back and get away for a bit. Understand that YES, you love your job and YES, you have so much work to do when running your own business, but as a photographer friend once told me, "This is not the end all, be all." When she told me that, it was like a lightbulb turned on, and the way I approach my business has not been the same since.

2) Create something new

• Do you feel like your work is too repetitive lately?
• Are you dreading the creating process even though you used to love it?
• Have you been feeling like your artistic process is something that you simply want to check off your list more than truly invest in?

If you are realizing that these things have been affecting you for some time, it's time to invest in an outlet for change.

Don't get me wrong, it's still work. There will always be times that you feel like you HAVE to do something when you just want to watch a movie or go for a walk outside (it's still work!), but if you have been feeling this excessively, it's time to consider the possibility of changing something up!

Try creating new things, try doing your work differently, join a community of people who have the same passion as you and feed off of each other's ideas - It's HEALTHY and NECESSARY! If you are a photographer and are currently reading this, connect with other artists and creators to see if they want to collaborate! You'd be surprised how many people want to work with other artists! Make time and invest in your art for personal purposes too. Even if you don't share it, create.