Make Your Own Creative Circumstances

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Photo by Crista Cloutier.

I travel a lot, and I talk with artists wherever I go.

It’s what I do for a living. Seriously. (It’s a great life.)

But one thing artists often tell me is that they feel stifled by location. “It’s this place that’s the problem with my career. If only I lived somewhere else,” one told me.

I hear them. In fact, I used to say that myself. I know that place they yearn for: that “perfect” place, the one that would always keep them creatively and intellectually challenged, one that would provide an eager market for their work.

But I have learned that damning where you are doesn’t get you to where you want to be.

It’s important that you create those things that you need for yourself wherever you are. Creative and intellectual challenges can be found in a small town as well as a major city. You just have to look harder.

Change your criteria. Open yourself up to seeing things differently.

And an eager market for your work?

Well, don’t wait for the world to discover you. Show it who you are. Right now, right here.

Crista Cloutier works internationally as an artist and writer. She is the founder of The Working Artist. Over the course of her career, Crista has collaborated with some of the most significant contemporary artists showing today. She is certified as a fine arts appraiser, has worked as a licensor, arts writer, gallerist, award-winning documentary filmmaker, fine-art publisher, and she has curated dozens of exhibitions. Crista has worked with artists whose careers range from blue-chip to just beginning. She knows firsthand how successful artists manage their careers and has witnessed where aspiring artists often stumble. Visit TheWorkingArtist.com to find out more.