I'm a pretty big fan of the tiny house movement, and I thought I'd share one video about a tiny floating art studio that I particularly liked. My secret dream is to own a tiny house like this, though I think in real life I crave more space than a tiny house could provide. Currently I'm working in my bedroom, and the fight to find another square foot to cram another art tool into (such as a scanner, or a matt cutter, or even just setting down a few paintings instead of having to put them away into storage!) definitely grates on me. And then if my belt loop catches on a door nob as I squeeze myself around in my little space... I go berserk, let me tell you! (Just kidding. I go "GAH!" and then go about my business.)
But it is so cool to see how people use their creativity to make amazing little houses to work in, live in, or just look at! I would love to have a little studio separate from my home, where I'd just work and drink tea and not notice that my kitchen at home is messy or that I need to do laundry or dust or whatever home duties present themselves... hmmm... Sounds like I have a bit of housework to do, now that I think about it!
Anyway I'm getting off track. The point of this blog post is not to heavily insinuate that if you know of a little space I could get for real cheap that would work for studio space, please message me. (seriously, message me!) The POINT is that in this video, the man Mark Hobson who owns the house boat said something that really gave me some good perspective on my own art career.
The reason I was encouraged was not so much because I specifically want to have a houseboat or be the same kind of artist as Mark (he does nature paintings, whereas I'm more of an illustrator). What was encouraging was the career timeline that he presented. At the end of the video, after he was done talking about all the practical ins and outs of his awesome studio space, he mentioned that he decided to become an artist because a relative of his had started doing art late in life, and though she progressed amazingly, she died only five years after she started honing her artistic skill. Mark didn't want to repeat that story in his own life, so he took the plunge and decided to be an artist. Then he said, "Those first ten years were tough financially, for sure. But still, I get to live the life I dreamed of and I'm very lucky. I hope other people get to that someday."
"Those first ten years were tough financially, for sure. But still, I get to live the life I dreamed of and I'm very lucky. I hope other people get to that someday."
"Ten years???" I thought to myself. That's a pretty long time! In this age of instant gratification, ten years seems like too long to try. On the other hand, I can look back to 2020 when I started my art career and see that even in these past two years so much has changed and grown, and yes, fallen into place! And if I'm still struggling with things a bit now, I shouldn't be too hard on myself. I'm only two years into my ten year career building journey, after all. I hope that if you're starting something big - like Ten Years Big - that this idea will encourage you too. :)
Mark described it like this: "Once you stick your neck out, the pieces will fall into place, and they will totally fall into place. I've learned to trust that. You make a decision that makes just a little more sense, and sometimes it's not obvious at the time, but [you think,] "this one looks like it might get me a little closer to that goal," and you make that decision and then a few months later or a few weeks later something else comes up and you make another little decision, etc. etc. - you don't get there quickly, but you just creep along and then you look back and declare, "Wow! This is how it works!"
"Once you stick your neck out, the pieces will fall into place, and they will totally fall into place. I've learned to trust that. You make a decision that makes just a little more sense, and sometimes it's not obvious at the time, but [you think,] "this one looks like it might get me a little closer to that goal," and you make that decision and then a few months later or a few weeks later something else comes up and you make another little decision, etc. etc... You don't get there quickly, but you just creep along and then you look back and declare, "Wow! This is how it works!"
Some little decisions that I come across are:
Should I do artwork or blog today? (Guess today was a "YES" for blogging)
Should I take on this or that project? (Or, all the projects, and then get totally overwhelmed because being you just can't actually say yes to everything without saying no to someone else)
Should I add one more detail to this drawing? (Probably not. Just keep the drawing simple. It'll look fine!)
...and so it goes!
So here's to creeping along! I hope you are encouraged by this idea. Life isn't about instant success. It's about taking it one step at a time. Sounds cliche, but it's true. What little decisions will help you move towards your goal?
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