Mark E Shellshear.

We need to make work that matters for the people who care about our Art. It is easy to be average it takes little effort and low risk, but it will always be average work. To make work that matters takes risk and emotional energy and we invest something in it that average doesn’t have, the desire for constant improvement. Average does not have to improve, it’s just average and that is easy to do and nobody cares. Consistent improvement can be measured, we will see the improvement in our work, because it matters to you the creator and to the people who care about your Art. It always matters.

Most of the important things you will have to do to be a successful Artist are not things you will feel like doing, but that does not matter you will still have to do them. The difference between highly successful people is that they know that hard things have to be done and they just do them, they do not debate and negotiate with themselves and talk themselves out of it because they do not feel like it, they do it. The difference is taking action and doing it quickly so you don’t talk yourself out of it. So next time you know you should do something but don’t feel like doing it, act and do it, that is what successful people do.

The imagination drives our practice and helps us to produce the work that defines us as Artists. We take what does not exist, except in our imagination and dreams and we turn it into a beautiful Art work. As Artists we go to work on an idea and turn it into reality. We breath life into ideas and produce exceptional Art. We imagine it and it is. We dream it and it becomes reality.

Now not everyone will like us or our Art, but we must do all we can to endear ourselves to others. Create wonderful original Art and work on the better you, a better smile, on your pleasing personality and always be as friendly as you can, get rid of bad habits like arguing and criticism and learn to see the best in every situation. It may not work out exactly as you want all the time but as long as you have always given it your best effort, that’s enough. .

Artists work alone most of the time, so learn to motivate yourself. Motivation is internal and the lesson to learn about self motivation is it’s not about how you feel, feelings are fickle, motivation is about how you speak to yourself. Negativity starts internally and most because they don’t use positive self talk, affirmations and then wonder why negativity fills their mind. Positive healthy statements like, I am a good Artist, I am a selling Artist, I am a hard working Artist, this constant repetition gets me to a positive state of mind and I will motivate myself, because I will act on my positive self talk and my reality will be my statements. Change your self talk and you will change you.

Most people are starved of appreciation and understanding, we all want someone to listen to us, to notice us and tell us we are doing well. The best way to get people to cooperate with us is not to point out their faults and criticise them, but to appreciate them and encourage them. It takes no talent to find faults, it takes a rare person to take the time to find something to praise. Always follow the golden rule, treat others the way you want to be treated. .

The problem with being lost in the crowd is you do not stand out, and that makes you invisible. You would be far better to do different and original work and race ahead where no one else sees a path and deliberately hold back from going where the crowd wants to go. Conforming to crowd think and being invisible is fine if that is what you want for your career, but it’s very hard for an invisible Artist to get the public's attention. W ith our Art business we need to be original, innovating and marketing our Art works and bringing change It is far better to stand out and get the attention of strangers, than to be invisible, lost in the crowd. .