Studio Insights: A Different Way to Look at Fear in Your Art Business
Studio Insights: Turn the Cube
I had a thought recently about fear and how much power it can have over us as artists in business.
Overcoming fear as an artist isn’t always about making the fear disappear. Sometimes it’s simply about learning to look at it from a different perspective.
Imagine holding a Rubik’s Cube in your hands.
On one side of that cube is one of your biggest fears.
Maybe it’s the fear of failure.
Maybe it’s the fear of raising your prices.
Maybe it’s the fear that you aren’t good enough yet.
Maybe it’s the fear of putting your work out into the world and hearing nothing back.
For me, right now, that side of the cube would probably say marketing.
More specifically: What if I put myself out there and no one cares? What if I make the video and no one watches it? What if I share my work and I’m ignored? What if I’m rejected?
When I’m looking directly at that side of the cube, the fear can feel enormous.
But then I had this thought:
That is only one side of the cube.
What happens if I turn it?
Turn the cube.
On another side, I see myself actually enjoying creating a video or sharing something about my work.
Instead of worrying about how it will be received, I’m enjoying the process of telling the story. I’m talking about something I love. I’m teaching. I’m creating.
Turn it again.
I see new people discovering my work.
Someone who never knew I existed watches a video, visits my website, and perhaps eventually becomes a client.
Turn it again.
I see myself sitting calmly at my easel.
I’m not thinking, I should be marketing. I should be posting. I should be doing something to bring in new business.
I already did it.
Now I can paint.
Turn it again.
Business is coming in more consistently. I open my banking app and instead of feeling that little knot of uncertainty, I feel encouraged because I know I have been doing the work that creates future opportunities.
Turn it again.
It’s evening.
I’m sitting on the couch after dinner watching a television show and actually enjoying it.
I don’t have that nagging feeling that I should be working because I kept the promise I made to myself that day.
I did the work.
Now I can rest.
Turn it again.
Somewhere, another artist is watching one of my videos.
Maybe she has been afraid to put herself out there too. Maybe she has wondered whether she could actually build a business around her artwork.
And something I shared makes her think:
If she can do this, maybe I can too.
Turn it one more time.
Someone who isn’t an artist is getting a glimpse into an artist’s world.
They begin to understand that creating a painting isn’t simply standing in front of a canvas with a brush.
They see the years of practice. The decisions. The failures. The drawing skills. The understanding of color, composition, light, edges and storytelling.
Maybe by allowing someone into my world, I help them understand the value of art in a way they never have before.
And suddenly that first side of the cube — the fear of putting myself out there — doesn’t seem quite so big.
It hasn’t disappeared.
It’s still there.
I can turn the cube back around and find it anytime I want.
But now I know something else is there too.
There are all these other possibilities that fear wasn’t allowing me to see.
What is on your cube?
Think about one fear that is holding you back in your art or your business.
Don’t try to convince yourself that the fear isn’t real.
Instead, write it on one side of an imaginary Rubik’s Cube.
Then turn the cube.
Ask yourself:
If this fear didn’t make the decision for me, what might become possible?
Come up with another possibility.
Then turn it again.
And again.
Try to find seven things that could happen if you were willing to move forward with the fear still there.
You may discover that the fear isn’t nearly as large as it seemed.
It was simply the side of the cube you had been staring at.
Sometimes overcoming fear isn’t about making it disappear.
Sometimes you just need to turn the cube.
