Self-Worth and the Artist

Everyone talks about having 'self-worth' or 'self-esteem' but I don't know that I've ever considered what that means to me. If I were to identify myself as something, it's as an artist. That's what I do best. It's natural to then assume that my 'self-worth' is tied to being an artist.

This is a big mistake.

As an artist, I am never satisfied with anything I produce. My end result is always about 60% of what I had envisioned and that is a poor thing to base one's self-worth on. I would constantly be running around life with a low self-esteem. It's pretty common for artists to do this, however. We tie our self-worth so closely into our drawing ability that we end up terminally depressed or we depend too much on the accolades of others. We start producing art that will get us approval because we mistakenly believe that's how to get self-worth. It's a hollow thing indeed to depend on others to provide that and we end up producing art that is popular but by no means genuine to our artistic vision.

The best way to avoid this is to have many different interests and activities in life. Don't hang everything on your art. Do things that don't involve another person's approval. I like to sculpt. I have no ambitions about making it a career and I don't have any pride attached to it. I simply make what I like and let it be what it is. I also have my 9-5 job as a graphic artist and I have a very important job as a Father of two girls. All of these things I do well, mostly, but if I fail at one, I can think about how I did well at the others and my self-worth doesn't take such a big hit. I know that if I fail at a painting, for example, I still did a good job at work that day and did a fantastic job with my daughters. I have success to fall back on when one aspect of my life takes a nose-dive.

We artists have a tendency to fall into a black hole when our art hits a low point. We all need to realize that other areas of life are just as important as our art. When we fail at art we need to look at those other areas and find success there. We just need to remember that our art is still there waiting for us and that the next drawing will likely be a success. Never quit and you'll never fail. We are worth more than the sum of our drawings.