Combating Your Inner Critic

Episode Transcript:

[00:00:00] Rodrigo: First of all just, just a note comparisons are so, are so bad.

And I was comparing myself against other people all the time who were like, I'm doing this and doing that.

[00:00:16] Ilay: I hate when people do that to themselves, you can compare yourself with anyone you are your own competition.

[00:00:27] Molly: So I think it was very easy to feel jealousy towards people and think, oh my career, isn't progressing the same kind of rate. Am I doing something wrong? What should I be doing differently and whatnot.

[00:00:37] Isotta: This is Art Is… a podcast for artists where we brainstorm the future of the art world and the creative industries. The mission of Art Is… a podcast for artists, has been to encourage emerging artists, students, and early career creatives to seek out possible futures for the art world.

[00:00:54] Isotta: One where our creative ambitions and professional needs are met today. I wanted to do something a little better.

[00:01:00] Isotta: Making season two of the podcast has been incredibly fulfilling. Each of the 11 guests who have come on so far to share stories and experiences from within the art world and the creative industries, or from outside in the tech innovation and startup space

[00:01:14] Isotta: have been incredibly insightful.

[00:01:17] Isotta: I have been crafting the second season to highlight the themes and topics introduced in season one, Things like the divide between art and design, the role of NFTs and the metaverse in the future of the creative world, ideas around product management, for artists professional and personal creative journeys and stories of creative success and setbacks.

[00:01:38] Isotta: I've noticed that there's some really interesting emotive threads and commonalities linking these accounts. And one of the things that stands out in particular, Is this idea of not comparing yourself and your work to others? I feel very strongly about this because I'm not very good at it. Myself. I think from a young age, I've always liked comparing things as a way of understanding the world.

[00:02:00] Isotta: And as a way of finding my place within it, I think this also relates to the way we are taughtart history and art comparing and contrasting visual elements and concepts.

[00:02:11] Isotta: It's just in our nature as creative. So when it comes to something like Instagram and how we as artists and creatives use engage and act on the platform, a topic that has come up in almost all 14 episodes of art is It's particularly difficult to stop comparing yourself and your work to what you see on. because the UX and UI of the app is literally designed for that purpose so that all the content on there is constantly fighting for you to stop scrolling and pay attention. This episode will recapitulate the advice, experiences, and arguments on why you as a creative person should not compare yourself to others. I hope you enjoy it and find it as useful as I did

[00:02:54] Isotta: first off, you'll hear from Michelle. a Spanish artist based in London. She was featured in season two episode one artists emerge from the pandemic. In this clip, she shares her own personal journey. you feel like you're always competing with your peers, but that's just so it's so unhelpful and, and it's just really saddening as well but for me, like the main thing is social media and how horrible that is. I had to, for the majority of the pandemic go off. Offline, um, in that sense I feel like Instagram has specifically is so bad for artists because you're selling yourself every single moment and you, you see people like making work for the sake of posting it on Instagram and that's so.

[00:03:45] Michelle: Not meaningful. And, and by the nature of Instagram, it's, it makes it content to something that's like throw away to be consumed and then thrown away, which is the whole capitalist idea ofculture exists to be consumed, not to be preserved or, um, like embodied or I don't, I don't know how to describe it.

and so it seems so kind of counter-intuitive to. Use social media as a tool. Obviously we had, we had nothing else, but, I think it's really, it's so bizarre and on a personal level as well. Like people feel like they need to post about achievements all the time. And I just, that for me, that's the, was the nail in the coffin in a year where I felt like it wasn't achieving anything.

[00:04:32] Michelle: Constantly. And I was comparing myself against other people all the time who were like, I'm doing this and doing that. And I'm, well, I'm doing nothing and I can't do anything. So I just, I'm not going to look because it's making me so depressed.

[00:04:47] Isotta: Now to zoom out a bit, we have Rodrigo, portato a professional, creative and expert storyteller based in Sao Paolo Brazil.

[00:04:56] Isotta: He was the guest for season two, episode seven stories are our super.

[00:05:01] Rodrigo: You know, when I compare myself to another, another person this is I lose vision ofactually comparing something, you know, people are, are different and are living different context. They know different people. They are, you know, in different places.

[00:05:19] Rodrigo: When I compare myself to someone, this is a illusion. So a piece of advice for everybody is. Try not to compare yourself with another people, you know you, you need to understand you and be connected with yourself. You're you're so who you are, you know, and and the body, our body is the Oracle, you know, is we, we can, we can feel it.

[00:05:44] Rodrigo: If you are doing something that is connected to us or not connected to us we can feel it if we are doing something right. against our values, for example, even if it is not in our mind is if, if, even if it's not rational we can feel it. So pay attention to your feelings and be truthful with yourself.

[00:06:06] Rodrigo: in a digital world, we, we should be capable of showing our fears or our vulnerability. Our truth, you know, and peoplerelate to that.

[00:06:19] Rodrigo: Nobody will relate to someone that is perfect and everything is awesome. Like Instagram, you know, when we, we see people on Instagram, everybody's rich, everybody's happy. Everybody's has a perfect life. And. this is cool, but is this, this is not the way of creating meaningful relationships and meaningful work, you know, so the best way of using the digitalsoftwares and you know the digital world to create community, to keep create relationships is to creating this space and.

[00:06:56] Ilay: The goals and projects and excuses to bring people together and shared their stories, share the truth, shared the vulnerabilities and et cetera. Eli CUDA by Sola CLA is a Turkish artist. I spoke to for season two, episode four creative confidence in this clip. She shares her perspective on not comparing yourself to other artists on Instagram, and instead explains the value of reaching out. Commenting and liking their work to start fostering a positive community spirit between artists on the platform I hate when people do that to themselves, you can compare yourself with anyone you're you are your own competition. You need to get that into your mind. See a lot of, different artists works on the daily and I never taught, I, I swear to you.

[00:07:52] Ilay: I never taught, oh my God, this girl was better than me. You know what I say? Oh my God, she has an amazing different style than I have. That should be your perspective. You tell there is no comparison. This is art. Art is limitless. So you shouldn't compare, you shouldn't be this harsh on yourself. I mean, as artists, we are emotional, you know what I mean? Emotional people and comparing yourself to others. it doesn't end up positive. They always say always she's better or he's better. Or. Or am I enough? It's always leads up to these negative questions that will stop you from creating. And it's not nice. It's not nice for yourself. Like, why are you so harsh on yourself? So comparison is definitely a big, no, for me, like it's red lines. Just don't do that. And I always comment on pupils work. Maybe I comment sometimes like 70 comments, maybe a day. I'm like, I love how to use this color.

[00:08:59] Ilay: That brush looks amazing. This, this color looks really good. What's this name? And that's how I meet people. And that's how I find opportunities there will be always someone who will find your art attractive.

[00:09:12] Ilay: So just. Compare yourself to anyone use Instagram as a positive tool. Just comment save. I always say, and then I go and I read the chapters. I read, what did the artists use? If they, you know, they write songs. If even if they did an IDM though, I love this word. Like how did you do it? what did you use? What kind of brush did you use? I'm always connecting to people. And that's how your community grows and they commit you back. And it's just a very nice feeling of artists getting to know each other just by staying at home. It's an amazing opportunity.

[00:09:50] Isotta: Now you'll hear from Molly Kent, Uh, Scottish textile and weaving artists based in Edinburgh, Molly shared her experiences with us in season two episode, one artists emerge from the pandemic.

[00:10:02] Molly: I think it was kind of, it was, it was, it was a learning progress. I think a lot of people kind of had this quiet. I have a lot of jealousy towards one another, even if they didn't want to, because we couldn't see all another, we couldn't communicate in a same kind of way so we can understand how they be getting certain opportunities and whatnot.

[00:10:18] Molly: So I think it was very easy to feel jealousy towards people and think, oh my career, isn't progressing the same kind of rate. Am I doing something wrong? What should I be doing differently and whatnot. Over the past year, I've actually learned how to be more authentic to my practice and stop worrying about how we present a line and things like that.

[00:10:34] Molly: So like photographic professionally, well, as professionally as you can, but not going to too much effort to try and stay stuff. Instagram. And I kind of stopped trying to do that and just posting what I feel like it, trying to forget about the whole engagement thing, the engagement side of Instagram, and just kind of make it work for me rather than working for it.

[00:10:55] Isotta: I think as artists and creatives, we often look to the outside world for validation. We take criticism very seriously and we compare ourselves to others. But the interesting thing about this comparison game that we play with ourselves is that we seem to be our biggest critics Sure. It's hard to get bad feedback from people online or those moments when your work doesn't receive the recognition, you believe it deserves are tough, but when it comes to seeing someone else being successful, We're seeing a piece of work that you think is better than yours in these cases, you are the critic, but what's really important.

[00:11:31] Isotta: Is that just because someone else is successful doesn't mean you aren't like if someone is doing better, that doesn't mean you're doing worse success. Isn't something that runs out.

[00:11:43] Isotta: So that means we must define our own version of success. That is not dependent on things outside of our control. You can't control how successful someone else's or how good their work will be. You can only control yourself and your own work. this is what we should keep in mind as we brainstorm the future of the art world and the creative industries together here on this podcast.

Thank you for listening to Art Is… a podcast for artists season two, episode eight.

[00:12:16] Isotta: If you enjoyed this episode, please leave. Art Is… a podcast for artists , a review on apple podcasts. It really helps others find the show. I get to make the show freely and independently because of your support. so if you feel like contributing, you can donate through the link in the episode description. Thanks so much and see you soon.