Hey everybody, it's DJB. Maybe this could be like a thing where I make videos in my staircase, so like we talk about the deep side of art. In today's video, I'm going to talk about something that really bothers me personally and something that I think a lot of artists are conditioned to do and it can be a really negative thing on your productivity and your happiness as a whole. Growing up as an artist, child, I definitely created a lot of art. I did a lot of art all the time and there was certain art that I really, really liked and I was really proud of and I wanted other people to be proud of me for it and there was other art that I did not like and I wanted to throw in the trash bin or burn the fire. And I think that's pretty normal. I think that you know as an artist or a person who's creative, you're going to make things that you love and you want to share and you're going to make things that you want to throw in the closet and never look at it again. And that's part of the process. That being said, you have to be really careful about your mental perception of that process. I have never really been like this. I would consider myself personally a very humbled person. I don't brag about my art. I don't gloat about my art but I do share my art. I do like to share it with the world. I want other people to see it because I like it. As an artist, you have to have some form of self confidence to say, I love my art and I love what I'm creating and this piece I'm really proud of. It brings me joy when I look at it and I think that's the only way that you can actually succeed with art as a business is you have to have some level of self confidence because if you hate everything that you create, how are you going to sell it? How are you going to pitch it to someone else? There's such a fine line. It'll either be your super passive and you dislike everything you create, your humble and kind and you like what you create but you know where you need to approve or you think everything you do is absolutely amazing and no one can correct you and you are a genius and you should be making millions of dollars because your art is the best art that anyone has ever done in the century you've ever. So obviously this is bad, this is bad and this is where you need to be. But growing up and being around other artistic people, there is this like common pattern that I've noticed in a lot of a lot of the people I've met where they are over here and they spend all of this time creating and working at their art and they are true artists without a doubt they're like fully committed to their artwork and they want to create and the art creating and they're making stuff but they're making it in such a bad mental headspace that they can't promote it and they want to share it but they're also sitting there telling me that it's terrible and that they shouldn't be a real artist. Wanting praise for something but then also telling that person that you're not very good or you don't like what they're looking at is this weird way of getting false praise. It'll like make it worse and you'll never be able to break the cycle. I think personally that that's a really bad way to approach your art and a lot of people go that route because they don't feel good enough and they don't feel like their art is the level that they want it to be which is sad and I understand and I can look at my art sometimes and think I need to really improve on this but I don't sit there and bash it either. I can look at majority of my work with the exception of a few pieces that I created and just they never really jived with me. I was never really happy with the outcome but majority of my pieces like if I go and stare at your work or I go and stare at ghost I'm enamored. I honestly I pick them up sometimes and I go I don't know how I created this. This is the most beautiful piece of art I've ever seen. I love it so much it brings my heart so much joy. It's happiness in a model heart and then there's other pieces. The majority of those I have sold that I would look at and go this isn't sparking as much joy as it should but I know that it is still a piece of art. It's crafted wonderfully. I did the best that I could. It was the best of my abilities. It's finished. I finished this piece and so you should be proud of yourself for that and know that someone else will love that piece of art for what it is. You cannot hate your artwork so intensely and you cannot expect other people to love your art if you don't love it and you can't expect to be successful if you don't believe in yourself and your abilities and you don't like your artwork. And majority of those people unfortunately are incredibly talented artists that just don't have the mental self-talk to make beautiful art and they choose to believe that it is horrible and terrible and they don't like it and so then in turn they're not inclined to make more art. They're not inclined to share it because they don't like it and they'll never reach their full artistic potential because they're too busy slamming what they've done instead of embracing it. I know it can be really difficult when you're starting out to compare yourself to other people as well but you have to consider your personal journey and even if your work is not at the show quality or it's not super realistic there's space for your art there's space for everyone's art. Sharing it can be kind of detrimental in that sense because there is a lot of keyboard warriors and there's a lot of opinions out there and some people may not like it and if you don't have a thick enough skin to share it and accept critique or ignore the critique. I often think back to my childhood where I had sketchbooks that no one ever saw pre-instagram, pre-facebook days and I drew for myself and I loved everything I made and other people would look at it and think I'm not sure I like this style maybe focusing on realism. I love this style. This style brings me so much joy and ironically that's the style that's developed into my stickers and now a lot of people also enjoy that style with me but it will always make stickers regardless of how well they sell because I love drawing in that character style. It makes my heart happy. I think if I had shared it early on it may have deterred me from continuing forward. Be careful with social media and if you have to turn off comments don't accept comments and that way you can share your work and love it yourself without having the underlying commentary. Let the art do the talking and honestly nine times out of 10 the art will do the talking and those people will remember your work and they will remember you and they will want to watch you grow and they will want to purchase your art in the future. If you spend all this time negative down talking how terrible it is they're not going to want to buy it. They're not going to remember you. They're going to think of you as like wow she really has no self-confidence or the alternative. Look at my art. My art is so amazing. You should buy it. It would look so good in your living room. I'm the most amazing artist in the world. I've gone to art school and I have a degree and those people are going to be like there's no way I'm buying from her because she's too full of herself. Whereas if you're here's my art do you want to see it? This is a piece that I made and then people will say wow and they'll want to ask questions because you're not shoving an opinion down their throat. Be confident in yourself. You're a better artist than you think you are. A lot of people compare themselves to the other artists and that creates the negative self-talk but you are so much better than you think you are and even if you don't think you're progressing take photos you are progressing compare them back to when you started. You have to go up. If you continue to practice you're always going to get good at something so the more time you put into something the better you will get. I don't want you creating things that you dislike. I want you creating things that you like and social media can be an amazing uplifting place to feel good about your work but don't get trapped into the negativity of that and don't get trapped into false approval as well. It has to come from you. It has to come from inside of you because if all things aside there was no business there was no social media there was no sharing of any of your art, no galleries, nothing. No one wanted to buy art anymore. Would you still make it? Because as the answer is yes you are true to your art and you want to be an artist and you love it more than anything. If your answer is no you may need to reconsider why you're doing art and why you're looking for a reaction. Kind of just my opinion on it and I feel really sorry for the artists I've met along the way that limited themselves by their self-talk. Whereas it's okay to dislike that piece but it's not okay to dislike my entire creative background because I love my entire creative background and I love where I come from and I love looking at my old pieces. So hopefully this helped you get some insight onto that and hopefully you were not one of these people that struggles with this and if you are feel free to reach out at any point in time you can email me or message me. And like I said before you're a better artist than you think you are. So thank you so much for watching and happy customizing. Keep customizing. Get out there. Love yourself and love your art.