“When you act out of fear, your fears come true.”
I think the state of our technology and our ease of access to it has unfortunately deterred much of my generation from pursuing something they love deep down.
For example, the amount of gorgeous illustrations you can find on my Twitter feed is insane. I think a lot of people look at art like that and lose their morale. They tell themselves that they’ll never be able to create something like that, and that’s exactly what happens.
This wouldn’t happen nearly as much just a few decades ago. Even if 50% of the world are skilled artists than yourself, it would never possibly kill your morale because you wouldn’t be exposed to it if not for the modern internet. To the untrained mind, looking at good art can be extremely unmotivating, and it doesn’t matter if it’s visual arts, audio arts, or any form of creative work. It just sucks when you see millions of people better than you.
“While you may feel like you’re pretending to be an artist, there’s no way to pretend you’re making art.”
I wish this book came to me one or two years ago when I needed to hear it. I feel like a lot of takeaways from this book feel like a repeat of what one of my favorite YouTubers, Marc Brunet says. There’s a good chance he’s probably read Art & Fear before as an art instructor but I think I prefer the way he presents it to me humorously through a YouTube video.
It’s kinda weird to read this book because a lot of this mindset they preach has already been drilled into me in some other shape or form elsewhere. However, I like the section on “Magic.” This was a pretty interesting section because of what the author mentions about flukes and omens.
If you did good, it’s nothing but a fluke.
If you mess up, it’s an omen.
“Buying into magic leaves you feeling less capable each time another artist’s qualities are praised.”
I think the only thing one can do for themselves when they see art that blows their mind is to not idolize it and see it as magic. Once someone genuinely believes it’s magic then they’ve removed themselves from any responsibility to work harder. At least that’s my reading of this chapter.