Private to Public - Circles

Last week I talked about the judgmental limiting No, the scared NO. And also the valid NO, the focusing NO. 

Why you say yes, why you say no?
When do you say yes, when do you say no?

What is the timeline of your studio practice, what are the zones of intimacy and privacy in your studio practice? Consider this diagram of the private to public spectrum. The things you create and express are born, live and die on this diagram. They might stay in one circle their entire existence, or they might start in one and move to another. Hopefully outward! How do your Yeses and Nos play out here? We feel obligated to put all of our art out there. Or at least, everything we make should end up in the outer circle, we put that pressure on ourselves. Have you ever made anything that stays in the innermost circle?  What needs to happen in order for something born in one circle to move out to another circle? 

In the very center all is allowed. The glitter, the garish, the naughty, the bad drawing, the experiments, the mess, the unmentionable, the extremely private, the embarrassing. 
That innermost circle yes is a daring temporary yes, and yes in the moment, a yes to ALL personas ALL the urges. It is cathartic, it is maybe extreme. 

Many, many artists do not permit themselves this innermost yes. 

After something is born in the innermost circle, it needs time, YOU need time to see if it is congruent with your other circles. Maybe you will destroy it. Maybe you will hide it. Maybe you will paint over it. Maybe you will protect it and honor it and store it somewhere safe. 

And maybe it kicks ass and is an honest beautiful raw authentic amazing thing you want to share. 

How big is your Innermost Artist Voice?  Is it hiding in the inner circle, and needs coaxing to come out? Is it being heard? What it has to say changes over time. It speaks in all of the circles over time. Just like we do. But what does it want to whisper? What does it want to say when speaking publicly? Do you have its back? 

Another aspect to this nesting of circles is the development of individual artworks. This will drastically vary by the artist. Some of us are capable of improvising street art on the side of a building! But for myself, I usually want to start in the inner circle, and the public circle is intruding. So I am often in the semi-private circle. I’ve worked in that inner circle a lot. I still dip into it. I make sure I am not avoiding it. I don’t know, maybe I need to spend more time there. But it's an intense place to be. And not all of us want to make art from there!  Maybe you want to paint a still life of some fruit, you know? 

Anyway, I usually start in the semi-private. I like some privacy, some safety. Also, I need to be bad at it. It needs some time and space to develop, for layers to build, to find a direction. That heavy outline around the inner circle, those are the kind Nos, the chosen limits you’ve given yourself for materials, style, visual vocabulary. These are healthy focused limits, good creative boundaries you use so you can go deeper into your process and imagery. They develop cohesion. 

The yellow circle is a soft public space. It's your website. Your social media archive. It's been seen, you’ve taken in the response. It has found a home, it is congruent with who you want to be as an artist. The outline around the orange circle is your quality control, and maybe a conditional yes to showing something in progress, sharing your process, behind the scenes, qualifying it with context, that it isn’t done. 

The outer circle is your sharing it for the first time, declaring it, showing it off, promoting it, offering it for sale. It's what you are most proud of. It is your best artist self.

Is there anything you would add to this? Do you travel across the circles? 
What are the different types of fear and safety you experience in your art?

Creativity coaching is designed to support you in navigating these levels. Contact me if you’d like to explore how it can work for you - not a sales call! No pressure, it won’t work if you don’t want it and it would be super awkward ha ha!