Your Inner Critic
Do you ever struggle to start artwork ? Do you find that the fear of not being good enough can hold you back? As a teacher and artist myself, I have also wrestled with creative blocks, I get it!
If you haven’t created for a while, art making becomes a return journey which can be fraught with expectations. Filled with high hopes and ideas of what art should be! A fear that our art won't be good enough, stops many from even starting and in a high stakes employment environment like Hong Kong, there are generally high expectations in the workplace which can filter into other areas of life as well.
But don’t let these perfectionist tendencies steal so much joy and get in the way of your experimentation…………The Inner Critic
Our "inner critics" have an intimate knowledge of us and can zero in on our weakest spots. You might be told by the inner critic that you can’t draw, or you may mess it up, or everyone else’s will be better………and so to manage everyone else’s expectations you tell the group that yours won’t be very good, or that you can’t draw !
That inner critic is trying to protect you. These judgments are often rooted in experiences where you may have felt disappointed or even shamed for expressing. So the messages of not being good enough have been internalized. The biggest problem is that we believe that voice without question and take what it says at face value.
Just imagine if you could put all that aside and embrace your art like your younger child did!!! So how do you push through and overcome those inner voices?
Allow yourself time to “play” and experiment with materials, which helps you shift attachment to a final product
Adjust your own expectations
Accept that you can only ever be yourself
Be KIND to yourself, that creative part of you is very vulnerable.
Your tender artist self needs HUGE doses of compassion, under any and all circumstances.
UK Artist Helen Wells offers these suggestions:
I create for myself, I’ve learnt not to create for other people’s approval but more for my own expression, the more I do this the more folk connect with what I am making.
I often work across multiple pieces of paper at once, there is something about the quantity which lowers my expectations of ‘one precious piece‘ and feels abundant
I might use unpredictable and unusual tools such as twigs or offcuts of cardboard as mark making tools
Creating with regularity means I am able to see that there are sometimes seasons where everything flows and seasons where it doesn’t.
Starting with a small and achievable task or challenge, is often enough to get the ball rolling and once I started its a lot easier to continue
Play with different art materials: watercolour, ink and experiment, see what works, what doesn’t…
I concentrate more on what fascinates and interests me - I get curious and serious about my own interests and starting points and these are more important than the end results
So the next time you get stopped in your tracks by a shaming inner critic message around making your art, try and offer yourself a little compassion.
Here’s Brene Brown on the trials of perfectionism and the inner critic.
https://www.thegrowthfaculty.com/blog/4destructivetraitsofperfectionismfromDrBrenBrown
