I feel for you. Certainly the artistic path is not an easy one. Nowadays there are few “easy” paths. I think it’s all about the attitude you approach life with and enjoying the process, not just the destination. I am in school right now but, once I’m done, I plan to have a side job so that I have some regular income while I play and work on my art. That takes some of the pressure off of “making something happen” and allows you to tap into why you fell in love with art in the first place.

I think the path is “difficult” for all of us who are pursuing art as a means of making a living. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. But if you can find a way to enjoy the process and find other streams of income in order to relieve the stress, I think you will enjoy your artistic life better. It’s like watching a pot of water, waiting for it to boil – that can drive you crazy! But if you just find something to read or watch on TV while waiting for the water to boil, it happens in a snap!

Good luck to you and don’t give up! I don’t think God MAKES anything difficult. He/She has given us everything we need to be successful already. We just need to tap into it and remind ourselves that God wants to express Itself through us and through our work. God is not at odds with us.

You could look at things from a relativistic standpoint when answering the question of why God allows bad things to happen. If all the things that happened to us were ‘good,’ but some were better than others, then the lesser of the ‘good’ events could be considered to be ‘bad.’ (i.e. Not having a job is ‘bad’ while having a job is ‘good.’ But if everybody had jobs, then having a job making 50K a year might be considered ‘bad’ when compared to having a job making 500K a year.)

I seem to recall a Twilight Zone episode that touched on parts of this topic. A criminal ends up in ‘paradise’ and finds that all kinds of ‘good’ things happen to him. He has money, he can’t lose at gambling, he’s surrounded by beautiful women, he has a luxury apartment, everything is going fine. After a while he gets bored and asks his guide if he can go to the ‘other place.’ It turns out he is already there.

As far as why the path isn’t easy, when you’re on the outside looking in, you often don’t see the struggles that happened along the way. It is only when you read memoirs like Stephen King’s “On Writing” that you get a glimpse into their reality.

Music, I invite you to read “Chuck Close: A Life.” In case you’re not familiar with him, he is one of our most foremost artists and has achieved so very much despite a great many limitations that his life and circumstances placed on him (all kinds of learning disabilities, poverty, crippling spinal cancer, etc.). But he’d never say that he’d had it rough, and he’d never exchange a single challenge he’s faced at any point in his life for an “easier path.” Everything he’s been through has been a part of getting him to where he is today.

My vision of God is not like yours; my God is that part of me that strives to be better and to do better. Even so, I don’t think you should be putting this on God. It’s you who needs to do the work. My favorite quote from Close: “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and work.” Your gift may come from a source beyond you, but it’s you who has to make use of it.

I ask myself this all the time. For myself but mostly for other people in my life I love who are better and more talented than I and yet struggle so. I wonder these things and I guess I feel….it’s a part of growth in the end. Their and my own goals may be a fraction of the big picture. I believe in a God that is giving and wants us all to flourish and be happy. I believe that God is fully aware and supportive of the fact that mankind needs money to live and thrive and he wants us to have wealth ultimately because he wants us to be happy. However I also believe that God’s main concern isn’t our pocketbook. It’s our souls. Until we have learned the lesson of soul that we are meant to learn we aren’t supposed to advance – we do not receive things like money that might allow us to advance without learning our lessons. The lesson may be unrelated to your work or not. So when I look at my life.. I try to figure out what areas needs to be improved…not just the art.. but the whole person and try to heal from there. I have faith that things will improve when we really find the source of what God is trying to teach us and deal with it – then we’ll be able to move on.

To my mind this is why we (human beings) fail so many times before we succeed. We are either quickly learning our lessons and advancing at mind numbing speeds or we are not seeing the true lesson and until we do we repeat and repeat an experience, only advancing when we have passed the test. It seems cruel but imagine attaining great success only to lose it all because we never took the time to learn the lesson. Some of us learn quickly and move so quickly forward we forget our goals, values or identity in the world and thus feel lost.

And finally there are some lessons that we are meant to teach but may never learn ourselves. Like when people die before their time. Then the only way I can rationalize that is that some people’s lives are about teaching. Teaching others to live their lives fully, or teaching others not to waste time on addictions or under the thumb of another human being. This type of loss is very hard to swallow.

Anyway that’s my thoughts. I say just trust that you are on the right path and exactly where you need to be for your own growth. You are exactly where you need to be on the path for good things to happen. Then look at your life and try to improve in any aspect you may find be disappointed in. Address it fix it and then wait… if I am right other things (not just what you are focusing on) will fall into place. If I am wrong… well at least you would have gotten to know yourself better.

Life is the School of Hardknocks. Everything that happens is a lesson. Accept it, learn from it. Tough or rough is all due to attitude. Remember trying to learn to ride a bike or roller skate or swim, in the beginning it seemed so hard like you’d never get it. So many scrapes and bruises. It took courage, determination and just plain stick-to-it-ness, don’t give up! Just get back on the saddle and try, try, again. Like the Little Engine That Could…just keep chanting “I can, I think I can” and Lo and Behold before you know it, you are doing it!

My husband says ” the quiter never wins and the winner never quits”.

Oh and God is that secret force within you steading you, helping you with your balance, the wind behind your back, the words of encouragement and the pat on your back!
He is the light of the Sun and The Moon, indeed all light eminates from Him. He is simultaneously inconceivably smaller than the smallest and larger than the largest, He is within each and every one of us as well as the core of every atom yet ALL is within Him! That is His Mystic Opulance!

Hello, everyone, I’m glad and anxious about coming here again. I needed to connect with people who might be struggling as I am. I love art. I’m a jewelry designer and my media is, seed beading. What came into my though life today is that I want to do craft shows, because I want to make money with what I love and maybe, one day find myself able to be supported by it. I’m also dealing with reality verses future. My rough patches are having someone to talk to about my self doubts and fears,who won’t just say “it’ll be allright, with out feeling what I feel, and that’s so annoying. After I get that type of response I go to God for comfort. I just don’t know why I don’t go to him first. I realize I want to talk the person I think will tell me what I want to hear, but they never do. I realized i needed to start TAW again for the third time. I was concerned about starting from the begining or finding a chapter that needed review. My ego was telling me I failed to be consistant again, and that’s why you keep finding myself back where I started. It seems that the more I try to find information on how to become an income creating artist , the more I find I need to learn and the more I feel the depth of what I don’t know. Yes, there are books and programs that are designed to help me, but I still have to decide on which way to go about that too. I work full time, and I am married, so that might leave me three hours a day to my craft. Next, my craft is not all that easy because I like to make my designs my own.
This creates a challenge because there are so many stops and starts. I want to internalize that other artist have just as many starts and stops, and are successful in the way I want to be. Because I have quite a few of UFO does not mean I am inadequate. Sometimes I ask myself do I really want to be a artist that tries making money, because if I don’t try making money there’s no pressure from outside and inside. I have to be an artist. I want to make money more than I don’t. I had been trying to find clear information on how to setup a booth ,and what works for craft shows. Fire Mountain website has an article that I read, which gave some great information, but also created more anxiety because I measured myself up against what was said ,and of course I was found wanting. So I went outside and tried talking to God about it, and I ask him what he thought. I felt reassured and ok. He let me see that I have handle things ok so far and with him it will be ok. It’s even ok when I come to him after I’ve tried other avenues. What I wish to be will take time. I need to learn to be okay with that.

Catta–
What you’re feeling is normal. We’re all scared when we take a meaningful risk. Just remember to take things one baby step at a time. And if you stumble (i.e., do poorly at your first craft show), don’t give up. Learn from the experience and keep going. Everyone has a depressing moment or two (or many) along the road to success. The important thing is to try. And who knows? You may find yourself at a craft show where EVERYONE is searching for bead earrings or necklaces! Frankly, that’s the sort of thing that usually sells quite well. I, for one, have bought lots of beadwork at shows.

Have you checked out Etsy? That’s a website for craft artists. Lots of jewelers there. You can get an idea about pricing, display and getting your work noticed. (Lots of Etsy artists have links to their Facebook pages, blogs, etc.)

Good luck to you. Go ahead and do it…one craft show at a time.