Art & Fear
Not everyone will love your work and that is ok.
Patrons at the LACMA. Dec 2024
Not everyone will love your artwork. If everyone you meet says they love it, they are lying to your face. How do I know this? Well it’s rather simple and you probably already know the answer. Art is subjective and no two people will experience it in the same manner, we all experience it individually and privately within our minds we explore creativity without a map, bumping into things we connect with and do not.
Last December I took a trip to Los Angeles to visit my family. To my luck and surprise I planned this trip exactly a week before the fires broke out. Outside of delicious food and family laughs I gotta visit the LACMA galleries for the first time.
While in the BCAM which serves as the museum's centerpiece for its contemporary art collection I came across the usual suspects Hockney, Warhol and Picasso all in the most prominent parts of the galleries.The museum lives up to its contemporary name. However, I couldn't describe to you every painting I saw, but I could tell you the pieces I loved.
This selective memory serves as a mirror of an internal bias we all share. It’s not just about the art, it’s about us, our preferences, and what resonates with us at that moment. I for one do not like Picasso's work at all and I did not stop at Bust of a Woman, I kept walking while his admirers buzzed and waited for a turn to take pictures of it.
Yet, I was absolutely gobsmacked with The Space in Which We Travel by Calida Rawles, which was part of Imagining Black Diasporas: 21st-Century Arts and Poetics. There was a lot going on with this painting, it was something I had never seen before, and I was immediately intrigued about the story it was telling. This exact thing also happens when other people experience our creative labor.
The Space in Which We Travel by Calida Rawles
Unlike Rawles or Picasso we do not have the luxury or luck of having our work being thrown in front of money paying museum visitors. Yet we still face the same question: will people like my work? We can not predict that answer, but the fear of a random person on the internet or museum passersby, not liking your work shouldn’t prevent you from sharing it.
Being an artist or a creative type on the internet is among one of the most vulnerable things you can experience. You are essentially putting yourself up to scrutiny to the world you can algorithmically reach. We have been told that once you post on the internet “the whole world will see it” that is also a lie. Thanks to algorithms, the “world” is a bunch of random-ever-changing-sized buckets that are perpetually leaking water from the proverbial internet’s ocean.
If you think about it, the internet is like a museum where your art exists among many other pieces of art. This museum is theoretically open to the whole world, yet the entire population of the world will not walk through its doors. Only a small fraction of people, interested in seeing art will walk through, and once they are inside the chances and amount of time they will have to view your work are rather small.
I know that sounds tough, but we know it’s true. If you are scared of thousands of people seeing your work don’t be, algorithms are fickle beasts. Your chances of going viral hitting a 1 million views video are slim, but never zero.
Take it from me, my 30 day reach on platforms looks like this:
Instagram: 1.4 Million
TikTok: 15K
YouTube: 87K
Threads: 14.3K
Newsletter: 52% open rate
BlueSky: lol the most I have ever gotten was 10 likes on a post.
Instead of being worried about how many people will see your work, focus instead on sharing your work with the people and places where you’re comfortable sharing it. You wouldn't see an exhibit about first world war era military planes in the same gallery where a Frida Khalo painting would be. It would make no sense.
Choose a corner of the internet that not only resonates with your values, but where your type of work would make sense. If you are a writer do it in a blog, if you are a visual artist do it on a visual platform, you get the point.
Half Dome, Yosemite National Park. Winter 2021
When someone sees your work on the platform you have chosen and they love it, you have struck gold by finding a member of your community. The most important thing you can do as a creative is to keep sharing your work with them, even when it’s hard to do.
At some point someone will say something negative, I for once don’t see that as a reason to run for the hills and hide when it happens. Often those comments may be from someone who has no clue at all of what you are trying to create or explain. Or you will get a very constructive critique, and these are the comments I pay attention to the most.
If you are not ready to share your work publicly, either in person or over the internet. Then work within the comfort of your sketchbooks. Keep tearing and growing that artistic muscle. When you are ready to share, don't hold back. Even if you think you have nothing to share, trust me there is wisdom and value in all of us.
