I sat on my deck this morning eating oranges and looking through one of my old sketchbooks that I started while I lived in NYC and finished after I moved back to Kansas. The first half of it is filled with notes about what I needed to do to start getting my artwork out there to potentially be able to do it full-time, plus lots of life-affirming statements and notes about where I wanted to be (at some unknown point in time), advice to myself, etc. The second half is filled with rough sketches, jotted down ideas for new works, and notes about how to keep my work progressing to where it really felt right.
I’ve gotten lots of emails and even had a couple meetings over the past year or two with folks asking for a word or two about how to get their own art off the ground.. I never feel like I have a very good answer that makes sense, but my response is usually something along the lines of ‘be brutally honest with yourself, be patient, work hard, learn to trust that things will be as they’re supposed to be, and when something feels right, don’t let go of it’. All these things are easier said than done, but I try to follow them as closely as possible. And I keep following them. And everything just keeps unfolding in amazing ways.
I’ll be sitting down with my current sketchbook tomorrow, because it’s been awhile, to see what unravels. Til next time. -Jack Handy