aRTIST JOURNEY- FROM SCHOOL TEACHER TO PASSIONATE ARTIST
Have you ever felt that innate creative calling, that burning desire to pursue your true passion, even when the path ahead seemed unclear? I'm here to share my story, a tale of navigating the winding road from school teacher to artist. From my early days in school, I've always had a passion for art. While I may not have been considered a ‘exceptional’, I cherished every moment spent with a canvas or sketchbook in hand. I continued my artistic journey by pursuing art at the A-level, and eventually, I took the plunge into Textiles design for my degree. But here's the twist , if you’re wondering where I learnt my skills as an artist it wasn’t my degree. My degree didn't include the traditional art techniques of painting and drawing. Instead, it focused on the creation of unique marks and patterns using tools like Photoshop, opening up new avenues of creativity for me. I use the skills I’ve learnt in my degree to design and create repeat patterns for brands so it is a nice addition to my career as an artist but it never played a part in the early days when I was learning the basic art skills I needed to get me where I am today.
The Teaching Years
Upon completing my degree, I embarked on a five-year journey as a secondary school teacher, teaching Design Technology, Art and Maths. Teaching had its rewards, but deep down, I knew it wasn't my lifelong path. I yearned for something that would truly set my heart on fire. That's when I realized I was meant to run my own creative business, even though I wasn't entirely sure what that business would entail.
The Turning Point
In 2016, I made a pivotal decision to leave my teaching career behind and explore my creative side. I began experimenting with watercolours, because it felt like a nice place to start, I had a set of paints lying around that I had kept for years and at the time I was obsessing over my garden because we had just had a makeover. The plants and flowers were giving me so much joy and energy and I thought, why not bring the beauty indoors and paint them. The combination of flower and the translucency of watercolour made such a perfect combination and this is where it all started.
My artistic journey was anything but straightforward. I often found myself starting and stopping, overwhelmed by self-doubt and excuses. My critical self-assessment held me back for a daunting four years.
The Transformation
2020 marked the year in which I transformed from a mere hobbyist to a full-fledged artist in less than twelve months. Amid the global lockdown I made a life-altering commitment to myself – I would paint every single day. Each day, I woke up with an eagerness to discover what my hands could create. I approached my art with an intuitive, carefree attitude, savouring every moment of the process. Without realising, I was naturally delving into various watercolour techniques just because I was curious. In April of that year, I achieved a significant milestone that reignited my passion – I sold my first painting. I remember being in tears at the thought of someone buying my art. This small triumph injected new life into my creative journey.
Embracing Imperfections
During this transformative year, I learnt a crucial lesson – the importance of sharing and embracing imperfections. I mustered the courage to post my work, even when I deemed it far from perfect. This vulnerability struck a chord with others, showing that imperfections are not blemishes but rather stepping stones towards growth. An essential mantra I live by is ‘the marks you don’t like today will be part of tomorrow’s master piece.
The 5 key takeaways that you can follow to help you follow your passion.
Now, let me share the essence of my journey with you through five key takeaways that you can apply to yourself to help you follow your passion.
1. Embrace Imperfections
Share your work. Embrace the imperfections, for they make your journey relatable, and they can evolve into your unique strengths. Do it even if you’re not ready, once you have taken that imperfect first step you can build on it. Whether that is starting an Ig account, YouTube channel, website shop or anything else. When you convince yourself, you are in the research/learning/exploring stage you will always be in the research stage. My question to you is…when will you have gathered enough research before you are ready to launch yourself into the world? Try and see and accept yourself as always being a work in progress. The moment you accept your imperfect outcomes the quicker you can build on them. In other words make LOTS of mistakes as quick as you. The quicker you ‘fail’ the quicker you succeed.
2. Follow Your Excitement
Listen to what excites you; it's often intricately connected to your intuition. Pursue activities that spark joy and resonate with you daily. Consider how you can translate these passions into a thriving creative business. Start journaling to help you connect to yourself and understand where your intuition is guiding you.
3. Don't Rush the Transition
If you're thinking of a transition to a passion-driven business, please do not quit your day job abruptly. Having a financial safety net can alleviate the pressure and help you maintain your passion throughout your creative journey. If you make your passion driven business about making money it will suck the passion out of the process. For example if you are making money by selling your original art, and that is the only source of income for you, the pressure to paint your best work will out weight the enjoyment which will lead to not your best work. So, find other ways to make a living from your work where you don’t rely on one process or skill set. You could offer to sell your art as prints as an idea. Overall, its important to have a financial safety net to alleviate the pressure and help you maintain your passion throughout your creative journey.
4. Perseverance and Consistency
The hidden secret to success lies in unwavering perseverance and consistency. It is the passion and love for what we do that makes us do it every day, but also the creative journey isn’t a smooth sailing one, you will encounter many road blocks along the way, it may be creative blocks, imposter, or doubt. The passion and love for what you do should outweigh any struggles that come your way. Which is why it is important to REALLY follow what you absolutely love!
5. Avoid the Comparison Trap
Comparison is the thief of joy. While it is nice to celebrate others, we need to appreciate our own journey’s. Comparison make you compare somebody else’s ‘outside journey to your ‘inside journey’. You're comparing the results of someone else to your time, effort, energy, sacrifice and everything you’ve worked for which isn’t fair. You must learn to nurture yourself as an artist.
In a mere 18 months, my social media following grew to an impressive 100k. This personal journey from teacher to artist highlights the limitless potential that comes from fusing passion with perseverance. The key is to take that first step, wholeheartedly embrace your imperfections, and let your creativity shine. Your unique journey, much like mine, could very well hold the key to unlocking your true potential. Nurture your creative spirit, and watch it flourish.
