Being an artist challenges your mind and body. Your imagination is always working to create something new and pushing your body to bring that idea to life. There is an innumerable amount of choices to be made: from choosing the right medium, to deciding on colors, and picking the kind of paper or other material that will most justly show off your idea. Each artist has their own step-by-step process they go through in order to make a new artwork. Sometimes they take only a few hours while others can take days, weeks or months. In the world of an artist, there are certain frustrations and irritations that we can claim to have been faced with at one time or another.
First, and probably one of the worst, is "artist’s block." Writers who sometimes get in a rut when they run out of things to write about go through what is called “writer’s block.” Artists have a similar experience where the creative juices seem to run dry. In a creative mind, the imagination never sleeps, but sometimes the transmission of an idea from the mind to the external medium gets stuck. There is always a right time and place for everything, and sometimes you could have an idea, or merely a concept, in mind to make an artwork but when you are in the studio, none of the materials look inviting enough to use. I can personally speak from experience. I took a figure drawing class this semester and we would have the same model come in for us to draw as many times as we wanted throughout the week. I would come into class with various ideas of what kind of drawing I wanted to do, but when I set up my easel and started to gather my pencils and pastels, the paper seemed to get bigger and bigger in front of me and all I could do is sit and stare. It is very frustrating because 1) the model was only going to be there for so long and 2) there were images in my head I wanted to create, but it was like my body decided today was not the day to do it.
Another frustration artists are all-to-familiar with is looking at other artworks and knowing you could have created something just as well or better. Art in museums, or even on the walls in stores and restaurants, were all bought from the artist that created it. Of course there is plenty of art that is overwhelmingly impressive that any artist could only dream to have the ability to create. Unfortunately there is also art that one looks at and feels the sting of remorse at the sad truth that they could have just as easily made and sold something similar. In high school I was told the blunt actuality of the situation: you could have made it, but you just didn’t. The reason the artist that decided to dip a large brush in black paint and slash one big streak onto a giant canvas made money is because they took the time to do it and put it up for sale. It is so frustrating because any artist knows how difficult it is to make a living simply by selling their work, but that truth often holds them back from even trying to put them up for sale. It is great to go out and see the different kind of art that has been made over the years, but it can simultaneously be disheartening knowing that these artists are doing something more with their art than you are with your own.
Another relatable frustration any artist can relate to is aggravation of staring at your artwork for so long at a variety of angles knowing something is off, but not knowing how to fix it. It is usually easy to tell when something is wrong in an artwork, whether it be incorrect shading, a wrong shape, or a skewed angle. Sometimes, though, it takes countless tweaks and adjustments before you figure out exactly what needed to be changed. The perk of being an artist in a class setting is having other artists around you to input their perspective on what is wrong with the work and, hopefully, how to fix it. In the Netflix Original TV show "Grace and Frankie," Frankie is an artist who works in her studio in the basement of the beach house where her and Grace are living. There is a scene in one of the episodes that shows Frankie staring at her canvas, moving around her studio and talking to it, trying to get an idea of where to start and what to do. Later on she wanders up to the kitchen to find Grace, who asks her how the painting is going. Frankie responds with “We are not on speaking terms right now.” This is comical especially for artists because we can all say we have been there at one point or another.
One other frustration artists can relate to is looking at another artist’s work and trying to figure out how on earth they managed to make it look like that. There are so many different methods and techniques in creating art that there is no way to learn all of them. People can do pretty amazing things, and while it is impressive to any artist, often it is also irritating not to be able to do it yourself. Artists have their own styles, but as a growing artist, it is easy to be inspired and influenced by what other artists do. As much as you love someone else’s unique method, sometimes it is something that was not meant for your hands to replicate.
Creating art is enjoyable and satisfying as a way of life, but it involves drawbacks and frustrations just like anything else. There are certain things that every artist can relate to have felt frustrated or discouraged by in their career, especially early on in trying to establish their own unique artistic process. At least we can all understand and laugh together in expressing these relatable discontentments with one another.
