“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.” - Georgia O’Keeffe

What did she mean by that? "Back around 2016, the unknown that I was afraid to make known was this.....publicly stating these 4 words....

I

am

an

A

R

T

I

S

T

So much fear of being laughed at, mocked for wanting to do it professionally, having people say, "oh that's a nice hobby"(and some people did)...even after I had sold at shows, built a website, been registered my creative sector biz as an LLC since 2001, pay sales tax, etc. 

It's been almost 10 years since those first shaky times of being able to answer the question "What do you do for a living?" 

If being able to say with confidence, "I am an artist." counts as a success, then yes, I have succeeded.

If you are struggling with this, keep practicing.  Say it out loud in the shower, in the mirror, every day, then work your way up to saying it to strangers.... it's easier to tell a stranger than your friends and family at first.  

The first few times you say it out loud, pay attention to your body language, your voice, your facial expressions.  It will feel awkward at first, but through repetition, your confidence will grow.  

That's not to say that you won't still feel your nerves every time you perform, present, or work in public, but being able to say it "I am an artist." Is a very big deal.

For those of you who are not artists( I personally think every human is an artist at some capacity), If you ever ask someone "What do you do for a living?"and they answer "I am an artist." , just know that it may have taken that person years to have the courage to make that statement out loud, to make it known.  

Rather than responding with oh, that's a nice hobby, or oh must be nice to have that kind of time, or I wish I could do  that, how about this.....

"What medium(s), surfaces, subject matter do you specialize in?  What are you interested in lately?  Where can I find you?