Are You Doing Creative Work You Enjoy?

The Artist Myth is a resource dedicated to helping creative people overcome whatever keeps them from doing their best work. What myth is holding you back? Click below to find out (and how to overcome it.)

BUST SOME MYTH

What Myth Keeps YOU From A Rewarding Creative Career?

As we creative people go through life, we tend to accumulate invisible scripts that keep us from making and sharing our art. I understand… I’ve dealt with them, too! I do battle with my own myths every day, and I’d like to help you with yours. What hidden beliefs are keeping you from making your best art and sharing it with the world?

The Beauty Myth: Why Art Doesn’t Have To Be Pretty (And A Case For Art That’s Downright Ugly)

The Beauty Myth says that the highest and best purpose of art is to be visually beautiful. It also implies that creative work should look to the standard of beauty first when it wants to attract attention, communicate a message, or sell a product. I assert that while...

The Consumer Myth

The Consumer Myth is the idea that artists and creatives can consume media without being affected by it. My generation spent much of our childhoods convincing our parents that this wasn't true, especially when it came to video games. We certainly weren't alone - we...

The Luck Myth

It never ceases to amaze me how we are so fascinated by the concept of luck. It’s fickle, unpredictable, and cantankerous. And yet an entire city, Las Vegas, has been built on the very concept of it. Millions of dollars change hands in lotteries, horse races, and...

The Passion Myth

How many times have you heard the following phrase related to not just creative endeavors, but just about any venture that requires human effort and will to accomplish? "All you need is passion." Hearing this phrase always causes me to scratch my head. Because the way...

The Isolated Artist Myth

For many people, both artists and non-artists, being creative seems synonymous with being aloof, isolated, and lonely. For an artist, being alone most of the time is even considered necessary in order to create their best work. But is that really true? Typical...

The Talent Myth

There has always been a lot of excessive attention placed on raw talent. It's easy to understand why. The youthful prodigy that practically emerges from the womb playing concertos makes a much more compelling story than the quasi-talented hard worker. But the...

The Sellout Myth

There are few concepts more destructive to an artist’s ability to have a sustainable business than the Sellout Myth. I cringe when I hear its signature sound of entitled belligerence: “Art is only pure when it’s given freely.” “You want money for this? You’re selling...

The Messy Artist Myth

This is the third in a series of posts called "The 12 Artist Myths" that explores the most common widely held beliefs people have about artists and creative individuals of all types. It also represents beliefs that we artists have about ourselves that hold us...

The Cinderella Artist Myth

This is the second in a series of posts called "The 12 Artist Myths" that explores the most common widely held beliefs people have about artists and creative individuals of all types. It also represents beliefs that we artists have about ourselves that hold us...