{"id":17882,"date":"2021-04-18T02:55:13","date_gmt":"2021-04-18T09:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/?p=17882"},"modified":"2021-04-18T00:23:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-18T07:23:47","slug":"hard-won-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/hard-won-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard Won Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Libby Mills’<\/a> Mod Flowers<\/em> are her latest challenges. Take a look at her Instagram page<\/a> and all that she’s been doing over the last couple of years, including process and studio pics.<\/p><\/div>\n

How adverse are you to hard work and challenges?<\/p>\n

Recognizing your ability to face the challenges and incredible effort that goes into creating original artwork can be a necessary, if somewhat painful, bit of self-assessment. Most of us find ourselves on one or the other extremes\u2014either we give up too soon, not doing the work or finding shortcuts that don\u2019t help us grow, or we don\u2019t give up even when the process becomes pointless or detrimental.<\/p>\n

Are you one or the other, or are you somewhere in the middle? Or does it depend on the type of work or challenge?<\/p>\n

The Easy Way<\/h4>\n

Trying to find an easy way around hard work and difficult challenges is probably a bit more common. If we\u2019re all being honest, there\u2019s few of us who have never used a tutorial or ideas from artwork we\u2019ve seen to develop our own pieces. That\u2019s okay. I\u2019m not saying that it\u2019s bad or wrong\u2014taking inspiration from other people\u2019s design is one way we learn. However, if you don\u2019t get past that stage, you are missing out on some of the most joyful work you\u2019ll ever experience.<\/p>\n

Using other people\u2019s instructions or ideas allows you to create something without putting your creative self or your ego at too much risk. However, it\u2019s taking chances and doing the hard work that makes the successes so exceptionally sweet. By going out on a limb and creating purely from your own inspiration can result in one of the most joyful feelings I think a human being can have. Seriously. There is nothing like hard earned success in your creative work to put you on Cloud 9.<\/p>\n

Now why do we feel that way about our own artwork? Well, for one, the work is born of our ideas, experiences, and loves. But more so, it\u2019s because of the struggles we went through either to learn the skills that allowed us to make the art and\/or the hard work and time we put into its creation. When it\u2019s done, your talent, your spirit, and your perseverance become a concrete thing that you can revel in and share.<\/p>\n

In one of my writer\u2019s group, a friend of mine asked why every story has to have conflict. The answer is that story IS conflict. Can you imagine watching a movie where the hero of the story had everything happen just the way they wanted it to? If Harry Potter just flicked his wand and make Voldemort go away, or Hamlet didn\u2019t care that his father was killed, why would we watch those shows? Do you gossip about the good things that happen to people or the difficulties people are having?<\/p>\n

Now, think about how satisfying it is when Harry vanquishes his nemesis and Hamlet finally avenges his father. Those moments are so immensely satisfying to us because of what we went through with the characters to get there. And that is true of anything we want to attain as well. The more conflict and struggle we face, the more satisfying it is when we accomplish or gain what we are after.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s actually science behind this. Researchers have studied everything from job positions to winning the lottery and they have found that when people are simply given something without having to work for it, not only does any elation from the acquisition die quickly but people are far less fulfilled and, sometimes, even become depressed. However, when people struggle to get promoted or have wealth because of years of hard work, they are not only happier, but they are also more motivated to keep at it than those that were simply given those things.<\/p>\n

So, when you\u2019re in the studio, don\u2019t be frustrated or shy away from challenges. When you find them, think, \u201cThis is my chance to achieve something wonderful and fulfilling.\u201d If you presently lean on the ideas of others, challenge yourself to create from your own designs as much as possible if not completely. Take risks. Push yourself just past the point of being comfortable. Do the hard work and see if you don\u2019t find it more than worthwhile.<\/p>\n

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The Other End of the Spectrum<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Now, if you\u2019re one of those that doesn\u2019t give up when you should, or you don\u2019t give yourself the time off when you should, learn to take more breaks both physically and from the work you\u2019re struggling with. It often helps to put a difficult piece away for a little while. Pull it out a few days or a few weeks later and you can see whether it is still worth working on. If it is, you\u2019ll probably see a solution you didn\u2019t see before.<\/p>\n

Just don\u2019t be afraid to set aside a piece that is going nowhere. Don\u2019t feel you have to try finishing something because you put a lot of time into it. None of your time spent is wasted. Everything you do helps you learn and hone your skills.<\/p>\n

Me, I\u2019m of this sort. A dog with a bone, as they say. I look at every challenge as a battle to be won, and I don\u2019t know the meaning of surrender. It\u2019s rather ridiculous sometimes. I also don\u2019t stop working when I should either, which is why I keep hurting myself.<\/p>\n

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Scaling Back on the Blog for a Bit<\/strong><\/p>\n

For those of you that were not with me for the Great Elbow Drama of 2019, I developed an advanced form of tendinitis in my right arm and can no longer type with it for any length of time. Well, now I have an overused left arm after too much research for my novel and too much gardening. *Sigh*<\/p>\n

So, this post, and probably the next few, will be primarily chatting rather than deep dives into design concepts as I\u2019m limited to using my speech to text software while my arm (hopefully) heals. Searching for a selection of great art images to go with what I\u2019m writing about requires too much mousing I\u2019m afraid. I hope you\u2019ll stick with me though. I\u2019ll aim for a mix of \u201cLife As an Artist\u201d articles like this one and design refresh posts that need only one image for the time being.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, for those of you who can, get to the studio, give yourselves some reasonable challenges, and enjoy the fruits of your labors.<\/p>\n

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You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts<\/a> or, if you like…<\/em><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How adverse are you to hard work and challenges? Recognizing your ability to face the challenges and incredible effort that goes into creating original artwork can be a necessary, if somewhat painful, bit of self-assessment. Most of us find ourselves on one or the other extremes\u2014either we give up too soon, not doing the work…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirational-art","category-ponderings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2O0Lm-4Eq","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17882"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17886,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17882\/revisions\/17886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}