Ask an Artist — What Steals Your Power?

This issue's Ask an Artist comes courtesy of Robert Genn, accomplished Canadian Artist, and author of a renowned Twice-Weekly Newsletter service for artists. Here’s a good question he was recently asked:

What steals your power?

A subscriber who wishes to remain anonymous wrote: “I am not always able to work. I am restless and disturbed. I am often not happy with my work. What steals my power?”

Most artists will admit that they have been on this spot. My solution is to take a look at yourself and try to separate the perceived reasons from the real reasons. I've found that the real reasons are often, but not always, lodged in a surprising spot: We are minding other people's business when we should be minding our own. \Some artists, even highly-realized, apparently motivated and successful ones have personal misgivings and negative self-esteem, often based on envy and/or peer pressure.

Furthermore, the loss of power generally admits to some sort of fear: Fears are balloons that float up in the mind and obstruct the free flow. Creative people need to dig around in their personal list of fears. Float them out into the air--and pop them. Emerson said: “He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.” The following are multiple choice. There are more. Go for it.

Fear of failure. Fear of success. Fear of competition. Fear of play. Fear of joy. Fear of work. Fear of plagiarism. Fear of learning something. Fear of being an imposter. Fear of not being paid. Fear of being paid. Fear of being ridiculed. Fear of being noticed. Fear of not being noticed. Fear of being copied. Fear of making a mess. Fear of being wrong. Fear of the unknown. Fear of commitment. Fear of getting excited. Fear of wasting time. Fear of irrelevance. Fear of fear itself. Pop, pop, pop.

PS: “When we are angry or depressed in our creativity, we have misplaced our power. We have allowed someone else to determine our worth, and then we are angry at being undervalued.” (Julia Cameron)

Esoterica: Having said all that, there is sometimes a small and hardly-noticeable error or problem in the work itself that stops you dead. An inconsequential glitch can make you unhappy, restless and disturbed. It's a blight on your landscape and it can keep you inert for months. If left unchecked it might even convince you that you have a personality disorder. It must be searched for, found, and then taken out and shot.