Can Artists Depend on Themselves?

SHARE THE WORK begins next week! A Free 5-day workshop designed to help you sell more artwork online! & Even more exciting!! MAKING ART WORK opens on August 24th-31st! This 9-week masterclass is going to transform and evolve the way you run and grow your business. I can't wait to get a front-row seat!   Listening to this episode while MAKING art WORK is closed? Be sure to sign up for the waitlist so you can be the first to know when the doors open up again!    Let’s dismantle the idea of the “Starving Artist.” Join me in my 9-week masterclass, where I teach you everything I know about running a sustainable, professional Creative Studio.   In this episode --  Artists often get told that they are pursuing a job, a career, a craft, or a lifestyle... FULL of instability. But is there anything more dependable and sustainable than the generous, rich well of creativity and energy we can draw from within our own bodies and minds?  In this episode, we talk about tapping into that deep well of inspiration and knowing that, because of that deep, rich well, your creativity and energetic reserves are GOOD.   The birthday email I mentioned is here. It's full and BEAUTIFUL.  I read a poem by Oriah Mountain Dreamer at the end of this episode, and I want to share it here so you can read along. These words are powerful and sweet The Invitation It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive. It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human. It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy. I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’ It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children. It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here.I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back. It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments. by Oriah Mountain Dreamer