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So let’s talk about impostor syndrome… Instagram shows us the best of what’s going on, I mean they even have a highlights section embedded into your profile, so who is talking about the days when it’s not so good, the days when we can’t be creative or feel like a failure. 

Let’s start with everyone has the right to create art.  But sometimes it feels like your art isn’t valid, and that depends on the purpose of creating. As Joe Lycett said on Grayson’s Art Club (which on a side note is great inspiration and you should watch it) you don’t need to apply for an artistic license, it’s the easiest license to get because anyone can have one. So everyone can and should create art (if they want to of course, i’m not going to force you into a room with art supplies and wait for you to make something). 

So why do we feel impostor syndrome as artists, when everyone can create art.. maybe we’re constrained by the art having to be good or maybe it’s the number of likes our latest piece gets on Instagram, or maybe it’s only good if someone wants to buy it? 

Creating art is certainly very personal for me and so when seeking external validation I can be difficult to not take it personally if you don’t get positive feedback / any feedback at all. It’s easy to get stuck in a hole, creating content instead of art and comparing ourselves to others on social media who we perceive are doing ‘better’ than us….but does that make our right to be an artist any less than someone who’s got more likes or followers than us? No. 

If you get what you want out of creating art, if it serves a purpose in your life, you should never have to feel like an impostor, even though sometimes we’re all guilty of this. An artist doesn’t have to be famous or indeed good, they just have to be able to say I am an artist when people ask what they do. And i’m learning to do that slowly.