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  Focus  On      JUNE 2004

This is the third of a continuing series of Advice to Young Artists by Artrom Gallery director
David Genovesi.

The fourth installment will be included in next month’s newsletter. The title will be“I’m an artist, I believe it, I’m good enough, why aren’t I rich?


a series of articles by Gallery Director David Genovesi

Advice to a Young Artist Part Three:   I‘m an artist, but am I good enough?
I‘m an artist, but am I good enough? That question is so subjective it really can’t be answered. But, what you do know is that you are unique. There is no one like you. No one has experienced exactly what you have. No one feels what you feel. No one sees things from your particular point of view. This is what the world is waiting for... for you to express what you feel, in your own personal, original way. The essential part of being an artist is to get acquainted with your own essential qualities, to search for your individual source.

Musicians create an infinity of combinations using just 7 basic notes to express emotions. Writers combine 26 letters in ways that fill libraries and transcend our phyical reality and take us to unexplored areas of our psyche. Visual artists start with only 3 basic colors and mix them to create unique interpretations of reality that can’t be expressed with words.

This is the creative research, this is the challenge; to find your own combinations to express who you are and what you feel, hopefully allowing others to glimpse a part of themselves that they were not aware of.

Maybe your work is not appreciated…it doesn’t matter. You’re still the artist. Maybe you don’t appreciate what you do...it doesn’t matter. You’re still the artist, searching, researching what you will eventually appreciate and what will eventually be appreciated, connecting with your individuality, examining it, exalting it.

Something is waiting for you, but what matters is the journey and the attitude, not the destination. To be “good enough” will be determined by how close you are in contact with your true self and how honest you are at expressing it.

The inner search finds expression by experimenting, and practicing techniques, developing ways of working, and refining them until something emerges that reflects noone but you. This requires courage. The courage to reveal oneself is not a common trait. Everyone has their own baggage to sift through, and everyone proceeds at their own pace. The pace at which you proceed is your choice. A knowledge of art history is also essential as inspiration, of course, but also to know that you’re not “stepping on somebody else’s toes”. An artist must keep working, searching, and researching until the question “Am I good enough?” no longer has any meaning.

In Part One, I proposed the First Step: Begin referring to yourself as an artist. Now!
In Part Two, I proposed the Second Step: Begin the process of believing you are the artist.
In Part Three; I am proposing the Third Step: Continue practicing the techniques that will lead you closer and closer to your unique expression, and know that this creative activity will bring you a sense of joy. Your teacher will be, above all, your Intuition, direct knowing without conscious reasoning.

In next month’s newsletter, Part Four of the continuing series: “Advice to a Young Artist”, entitled, “I’m an artist, I believe it, I’m good enough, why aren’t I rich?