Mark E Shellshear.

  The most exciting things we can do as original Artists is to innovate, experiment and be different, most won’t, the original trailblazing Artists always jump first. The timid and shy Artists will wait to see if it will work for the others as they don’t want to be first, so the y wait in safety. Once they see that it is safe to do it they jump in but it’s to late everyone else is doing it now also. Once everyone is doing it, it becomes boring because everyone is doing it. The innovative, experimental, original Artists have moved on to something new and exciting . The lesson for Artists is to always be innovating, experimenting and doing original work that way your Art will never be mediocre and boring. When yo do something new, we become someone new.

Sometimes we want to feel sorry for ourselves, complain about how unfair it all is and we tell ourselves a story that slows us down or stops us. Do not listen to the voice of fear going on in your head, do not get so down on yourself because life is still going on, the problem is not the whole world, just what is going inside your head. Do not let circumstances and your own critical inner voice defeat you, use that voice to your advantage. When the inner voice say’s don’t do that you will fail, decide to do it and see if you would really fail? When the inner voice said don’t paint that painting, people will laugh at you, paint it and see if people laugh? That inner voice is afraid and will do anything to stop you from taking a risk and doing new challenging things, it wants quiet, average, normal. Use that negative inner voice as a guide and say, I will do that. You cannot remove the fear but you can use it to motivate yourself. Next time that negative voice tells yo...

  Change comes almost always from outside the accepted Art normal. Don’t walk with the established Art crowd, be original and creative and don’t fit into the accepted pathways, they are imaginary everything is changing. Stop believing that it will always be like it is, it won’t, the Art world has changed and they can never put it back the way it was, the internet changed everything. The Artists who have reinvented Art have always gone outside the normal pathways to do things to create the new, original and important. The great ones always surprise us because we are looking for the obvious, we scratch our heads and say, w h ere did that Artist come from? When you believe that you can do it, the how to do it develops.

People say the Art world won’t change, yet it already is changing. They told me in the beginning when I started doing videos and blogs that no body would listen, they do. When we step out of our comfort zone and get uncomfortable you will be amazed at the difference you can make and what you can achieve, do not let anyone tell you that you can’t make a difference. You are important and you have all the power you need, just believe in yourself. Don’t listen to the negatives from inside and from outside and don’t let people tell you what you can’t do, show them what you can do. The most difficult thing to do is start and then to be consistent, then you will make change happen. Some of you will make a big impact on the Art world and some of you will make a big difference in your world and bring change. All of us need to imagine how things might be and then do all we can to make it our reality.

  Many come into the Art business believing that they will be different and that they will be magically an overnight success and I wish them well. The problem with that is that it can go away just as fast as it comes. Success takes time to build because you want it to last, so don’t rush it or be impatient it’s going to take time, ten years at least. Success comes to those who last the distance and produce consistent original Art works. Not painting much is not a useful way of building an Art career. Waiting to paint the perfect painting, your masterpiece, is a lousy strategy, you probably will not paint many painting because they will never be good enough. Don’t wait for inspiration to come before you start painting, it probably won’t come, it needs an invitation, start painting and it will turn up. Remaining an unknown Artist, being invisible is not the best strategy to becoming popular, you must get known, name and face recognition. Believing you do not have to...

When I first started my blog and then my video years ago I really thought that some people would try and stop me, but to my surprise people are rarely willing to step up and stop you. You do get the odd critic or two but on a whole most people support you and do not try and stop you or they just ignore you and hope you go away. I learned that what I feared came from within not from without and once the fear was silenced or rather ignored, I was amazed there were people waiting to listen to someone crazy enough to actually try and make a difference. Always my desire has been to see Artists earn a living from their Art and to bring about change in the Art world and before people used to give me a condescending smile whenever I said this as if I was crazy but change is happening. Every Artist that embraces the desire to change and does change as many have, we are changing the Art business one Artist at a time. Don’t worry about people stepping up and trying to stop you it wil...

  If an Artists believes that they are among the best, then they will preform at their best and create wonderful Art. If they believe in themselves, they find that good things will happen, because they expect them to happen, that is the story they are telling themselves. How we think about ourselves will determine how we act. How we will act either with courage or timidity, is shaped by our thinking. Determine to think positive now and future thoughts, don’t go back to the past to settle old scores in your mind you only project it into your future and your world today will be the same tomorrow. All of us are a product of all our past thoughts, we are living the reality of those past thoughts today. Change our thinking and we will change our tomorrows.