You are listening to the savvy painter podcast episode number 262.

This week I want to talk to you about why it is that a lot of us struggle with feeling good about our art and where we are in our art practice.

So I know this is a topic that is high on a lot of people's minds because it comes up really often in

growth studio and with the artist that I coach and work with so I thought it would be great to

talk with all of you about it today.

So the way I wanted to kind of approach it is just thinking about how we often think that

there is a destination with our art. think that there will be something better when we get there. It's almost like we're

putting off feeling good about our art practice until X, Y, Z happens, right?

So we think that once we get to that destination, once we get to that place, that we'll

feel better there, wherever that is, right?

So for some people that might be finishing a painting,

maybe a painting that has been super challenging

and has a lot of meaning in the creation of it.

For some it might be a finished series or a body of work

that truly gets reflected in their voice.

For other artists, it might be getting juried into a particular show or being part of a gallery, right? So it's something that is out there that they think is going to make them feel better about it. And sometimes I hear artists say when they're painting like, oh, if I could just make this painting work, I'll feel better. And when I ask them to elaborate they say things like I'll feel

accomplished I'll feel proud I'll feel validated as an artist or maybe they might think that you know when they finish that painting or when they get that show or when they achieve that thing that they'll have some credibility with their artwork when they make the sale that comes up a lot.

When I sell enough paintings then I'll feel like a credible artist or I'll feel

professional. And what I've noticed is often underneath those thoughts there's kind of the sense that

they'll be happier in some way and so often what they think will make them happier is to

know that they're good enough like that to me is one of like the king bee the queen bee of the sentiments that a lot of

artists have is I'm not sure if I'm good enough when we say I'm not sure if I'm good enough. What we're actually saying is I don't think I'm good enough. And that could mean that they're not a good enough artist, they're not a good enough painter, or maybe they're not good enough with color or good enough at drawing.

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