“And yet I wish but for the thing I have” Juliet from Romeo and Juliet, (Act 2.ii.L.138)
After toiling for years in oppressive anonymity, the artists who break through to enormous success have some surprising advice for the rest of us. Their message? Embrace and value your obscurity.
Apparently, when fame and fortune strike, artists are wrenched from their daily practice and pressed unceremoniously into the service of the marketplace. This new master has no time for experimentation or whimsical journeys. The goal now is to produce predictable, familiar work. Because the starving artist has “finally made it,” he is all too willing to leave his MO behind. But paradoxically, the very moment where his work —now buoyed by wide support— receives a new breath of life, is also the moment where it begins to die a little.
Whom is your art work for? Years of working alone with sporadic encouragement suggest that, primarily, the work you do is done to please yourself. Were it not for the “unpleasant need” to earn a living you would likely be entirely satisfied to work at the thing that gives you such pleasure and fulfillment for the rest of your days.
The current wisdom from successful artists is to embrace your obscurity while you still have it. Obscurity affords you time to think, time to fail, and time to learn. Anonymity allows you the freedom to be spontaneous and even frivolous. Artistically, it is the most fertile of grounds that you can experience because it allows you to consider infinite possibilities.
Obscurity can also be the most enjoyable of states.
Chances are you never feel more fulfilled by your art than when you are wholly alone with it. Here you discover a delicious intimacy. When you go to your piano, sewing machine or sketch pad free of expectations and commercial pressure, you are able to truly witness what magic may take place.*
From a very young age we are taught to desire recognition and its accompanying wealth. We want the blessing of others to validate our work and we ask that they count us among the artists who are deemed successful and unique. But no amount of money or popularity can take the place of what truly fuels our passion.
This is crazy! Don’t we and our family members still have to eat?
Sure. But perhaps Oscar Wilde captures our conflict best with his famous epigram: “Worse than not getting what you want is getting what you want.”
*Artists confess that, at some point, the work itself begins to guide you as to where you need to go. Here the artist is channeling a higher power. A painting will direct you to use an unexpected combination of colours. A character that you planned to kill off in your book will plead for his life so earnestly that you have to spare him for several more chapters. What a delightful, blissful feeling it is to commune so deeply with your work!