there is a song by guy clark called "the cape", and in it he sings about a boy who throughout his life continually jumps off his garage roof with a flour sack tied around his neck as a cape. we never know what happens to the boy till near the end of the song where Guy sings "All these years the people said he’s actin’ like a kid. He did not know he couldn't fly, and so he did."
the chorus goes "he’s one of those who knows that life is just a leap of faith. spread your arms and hold you breath, and always trust your cape."
what does this have to do with art and doing what you love? a lot.
i grew up hearing the phrase "anything is possible". instilled by my parents who were big personal growth and development course attendees, and had a lot of landmark education courses under their belt, i heard this repeatedly.
my parents raised me to always "create" my life; to envision what i wanted. so it seems natural that when i started painting in january 2013 I didn't question what i might be getting myself into. i merely focused on what i wanted.
my goal was merely to get by, so i painted and shared with people. i shared a little on facebook, a little to my friends; i shared with anyone i chatted with even in passing.
within 7 months i had gone from being a nobody to selling paintings for thousands of dollars.
the biggest driving force was my faith. i believed i could do it, and so i did.
there were moments when i was scared, there were moments when i didn't know where my next bit of income was coming from, there were moments when i put so much pressure on myself that if i took even one night out to be with friends I felt guilty. there were panic attacks and calls to my friends crying. there was confusion and lots of questioning whether or not i was doing the right thing. there were major moments of doubt, and wondering if i should give up. there was the learning curve and then eventually there was some success.
some people believe so much in their limitations that they never take that leap of faith. then there are people who don't know that they can't do something and so they do.
when you're self employed you have a lot of time at your disposal while you learn what its takes to succeed. there's a lot of trial and error, failures, wasted money and poor time/task management. you have everyday, all day, to judge and evaluate yourself and that can eat away at your self confidence and your faith in your vision.
in those moments you have to look towards the sky and not the ground. you have to remind yourself that you've taken a leap, and what will make you fly is your faith.
cheers guy clark!
"he’s one of those who knows that life is just a leap of faith. spread your arms and hold your breath, and always trust your cape."