Is the glass half full or half empty?
An artist will say, “someday I hope to be a full-time artist”. Okay, great. Once you start living every aspect of your life artfully well then, you are a full-time artist.
Are you a full-time artist if you have a day job? If you do that job artfully rather than killing time for a paycheck then yes, you are a full-time artist.
Think about this. If you are an artist making your living solely with your art then, are you a full-time artist? In the eyes of our materialist society the answer will likely be yes.
Long story short. Mindset is the key to living life as a full-time artist. When we brush our teeth, walk the dog or shop for groceries artfully we are in the zone.
As you go deeper into living all things as an artist it will change you. It will change your art. It will change your life.
Living as a full-time artist motivated by love, kindness, patience, generosity and things like these will lead to many personal questions. Here a few.
- Do I have a healthy balance between my work schedule and my joy of doing the work?
- Am I progressively pushing back the boundaries and learning new skills?
- Do I welcome failure as an opportunity to learn and grow?
Sometimes when we are honest with ourselves the answers are.
- I’m enjoying my work less and my work schedule is chaotic?
- I feel trapped and my skills have become robotic?
- I’m afraid of failure and I avoid making changes?
Those honest answers don’t mean you are not living your life as a full-time artist. They just mean you are human and like the rest of us you understand that there is no left sock or right sock, putting your pants on one leg at a time is nothing to be ashamed of and fashionable or not suspenders really do keep pants up.
