Mentorship in a Book

Painting is solitary work which for my personality type, fits me.  However, occasionally I long for quality interaction with fellow artists or a mentor.

To that end, I've formed an artists group which I named Playgroup in February 2007 and we are still meeting about every 6 weeks, critiquing work and gossiping about the art world and life in general.  We've all become good friends.

Mentors on the other hand are not so readily available.  Nor should I expect them to be readily available. Mentorship is a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person.  In addition, one becomes a mentor

when one sees promise or some other amazing attribute that the mentor believes in heartily.  In the art world, it seems the more experienced artists are struggling to make a living and don't have the inclination or the time to mentor anyone.  Even the internationally known well established artists I know still need an outside job.

I would welcome feedback from a mentor or just someone to talk to when I am feeling I am wasting my time and everyone else's time.

Then, I cam across a book titled "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon.  Ahhh, a book about how to get my work out there, make connections to galleries etc.  It turns out, this book was so much more.

It felt like I was meeting with my mentor and he was imparting his time tested wisdom to me personally. There was a wealth of advice, some of which I've heard before, some I've been practicing but others were refreshing.  One thing I don't do is have a good  engaging spiel about my work.  I need to be able to explain my work to a kindergartner, a senior citizen and everyone else in between.  How many times have people at some social function looked at me blankly and then try to find a good follow up question after I tell them I am a painter?  It puts too much pressure on the listener to have to come up with that interested follow up question.  If nothing else, I could say "I am a painter -  my specialty is abstracting nature,  creating a field of color so the viewer feels like floating in it's essence.  And just so the listener doesn't think I am some flaky person who doesn't know how to do realism, I could add "oh, I also do portraits".  People usually ask what medium I paint in which is a question I like.  It stretches the conversation out a little longer since I paint in acrylic and oils.  Then, it is time to get that martini refill.  And perhaps refine my spiel.

Some of his other helpful tidbits which are followed by great explanations in the book are:

You don't have to be a genius.

Be an amateur.

Read the obituaries.  (I love doing that anyway)

Become a documentarian of what you do - show your process.

Tell good stories.

Have empathy for your audience.

The world owes none of us anything.

I will be sharing this book with my Playgroup colleagues at our next meeting.