How much time and energy do you waste getting caught up in comparing yourself to other artists?
It’s pretty much unavoidable and it’s usually not healthy. However, there are ways to pull yourself out of it when you feel it happening.
It’s unhealthy because beating yourself up about whatever is never a good idea. Sure, be self-critical so you can get better, by all means. But the lesson to take away from an unfavorable comparison is not “What’s the use?” It’s not even “What can I do better?” It’s bigger – and potentially more liberating than that.
Unhealthy comparison is practically unavoidable because guess what? It’s true. That person IS better than you – but … only at one thing. What you’re not seeing is that there are things you are better at than that other person. It’s just that those are different things, and you can’t see them right now because you’re fixated on the other person’s particular area of superiority. But it doesn’t matter- it has nothing to do with you!
William Schneider, My Other Life, pastel, 24 x 18 in.
What’s going on here?
What happens is we totalize a single aspect of someone’s art into “that person’s a better artist than me.” No! We’re just momentarily seizing on what that person does well and convincing ourselves that’s what being an artist is all about, and it isn’t true. It can’t be true because the definition of “artist” is as unknown, unfixed, and changeable as the definition of art.
Your best bet is to teach yourself to see others’ successes as a model for your own growth and striving. You are not on that path – because you are on a different path. In reality, every path is different – there IS no formula. Believe in your path, not the demons on the periphery.
And what are we really comparing ourselves to anyway? Lots of time, we just imagine some elaborate fantasy about how great that other artist’s life is – how good they have it, and how awesome they must feel making and selling so many excellent paintings that people can’t wait to buy. But this is just projection.
William A. Schneider, Wilding Warrior, pastel, 20 x 16 in.
Often it isn’t even the work that drives the sales as much as the artist’s marketing or social media skills or the luck they had landing in just the right gallery at exactly the right time. Sold out show? Great! Let’s see them do it again next year and the year after that, and in numerous places, not just one, for years in a row, for an entire career, until they’re grinning sitting on top of a huge pile of money – because that’s the only way their life is going to look like what you imagine it is for them.
It isn’t going to happen because, again, it’s your fantasy not their reality.
Were you to sit down and talk with your nemesis heart to heart, they’d almost certainly be bellyaching about this or that gallery or curator or the lack of security that so-called “success” in the art world brings. Everything looks perfect until you get a good look. No one has “made it” and forever gets to sit back and do nothing but blissfully make their art all the time. Again, fantasy. If it’s someone’s skill you wish you had, well, there are teaching videos for that!<www.painttube.tv>
Turn it Around
So instead of using comparison as an excuse to quit or a way to beat yourself up, use comparison as motivation to improve what actually matters.
We all have this very human tendency to look at others and see what we wish we had. See it for what it is – an illusion and a colossal waste of time and energy; unless what you see and “covet” in another is something of deep worth, such as their authenticity, their work ethic, their commitment to a vision or a path.
Brenda Boylan, Tucked Away, oil on linen, 36 x 36 in.
What artists, not just living but throughout history, do you admire? Why do you admire them? (Bet it’s for different qualities than those you think you see in your nemesis). What kinds of comparisons might actually be healthy for you?
For example, there are artists I know who are passionate about a singular vision, who are blazing their own trails, or who are extraordinary teachers, who live and work in ways that make them and people around them happy. They truly make a difference in their worlds. There are artists from history that I revere whose lives and works fell far outside their times’ standards of success. Who inspires you to live better, more meaningfully, in the ways that matter most? Spend your precious time and thoughts on this, instead.
Imagine if you could elevate the comparison game to a useful tool. Stop wallowing in unreal mind-mud. Use comparison, instead, to become a stronger artist, a better person, and maybe even make your little corner of the world a better place.
The two artists featured in this issue, Branda Boylan and William Schneider both have teaching videos about how to use pastels – for portraits, landscapes, and for fun. Check out the special bundle that gives you access to them both.
