The artist as decision maker

Removing roadblocks

Being a decision maker is one of the many subconscious roles of an artist. You’ve decided to pursue a project and have decided to give that idea the time, space and energy to come to life. Then, throughout the creative process, there are hundreds of real-time decisions we make to get a piece created and finished.

It's easy to bog down an idea before it's ever executed. Is this going to look good? Will it actually be worth my time? Is it even viable or doable? If artists let themselves wade too long in the myriad of questions that cloud process, we'd never get anything done. 

Being decisive is powerful.

It allows you follow a path and see an idea through. It opens the door for experiment and experience. You could sit forever asking if something is the right or wrong decision. Often times, you can’t know without proceeding down the route. Whether it's successful or not, you'll learn something valuable, and you'll collect data that will inform your next pursuit.

Artists have often been described as intuitive. That deep understanding and connection to creative forces is maybe just having a strong sense of self and a strong sense of direction. Maybe it's as simple as keeping boldly onward long enough to say you’ve tried.

To be an artist you need to have strong opinions and trust in those opinions. You need to be able to see whether or not something's working. (And sometimes the right decision is to quit, to move on and move in a new direction, to understand when something’s no longer serving you and having the will to pivot).

I do believe artists have intuition, taste, that you don’t go down this path without “having an eye for it.” But you could have all those traits and never pursue your creativity.

To be a practicing artist is to know and listen to yourself, be bold enough to take action, and trust yourself as a decision maker.