When you’re on the bottom, keep growing. You never know when things are going to turn around.
The title of this blog came from a facebook vlog I watched by Garden Marcus. He is a motivational speaker and gardener using plants as a metaphor for self-awareness and growth. In the video he is holding an avocado seed that has sprouted at the bottom of a compost pile he has left alone for the summer. Here it is reaching from under a large pile, to survive and the point he makes really seemed to hit me in an important place right now.
December isn’t the same for adults as it is for children. When we are kids, there are dreams and hopes; joys and surprises of the season. We love getting together with family and the hustle and bustle. As adults, the other side of the holidays have a tendency be more apparent and we become more stressed. The worry of paying for everything, the rush of time, stress of family dynamics, working in retail… putting up the decorations, all of it just tends to take away the magic and we work hard to find the same joy we had as children.
Being a working artist at this time of the year is difficult as well. The final push of the show season and looking at the empty schedule for the next year, wondering what shows you want to apply for now. Do I want to try new markets? Apply for old favorites that didn’t go as well last year? I have a tendency to get frazzled now and do an application frenzy. This last year, I tried a lot of new things. Knowing that the new administration was going to shake things up and make the art market uncertain. Needless to say, I would say that I am currently on the bottom of the heap right now.
This is when I push to learn new things. This is the year for the residency because Marcus is right. It won’t always be this way; unless you give up. That avocado pit could have withered and died, committing itself to become part of the biomass that fed next year’s crop. It is a choice it could have made but it didn’t. It is a plant, it didn’t really make a conscious choice, but we do. I don’t want to do anything else and any time I get frustrated or tired; I look at my studio and my art supplies and acknowledge: it is the act of creation that I love doing. To be able to keep creating, to keep that fire going; I am going to keep learning. That is why as artists we take workshops, travel to get new reference materials, apply for residencies, take local art classes; so we can grow.
The next time you wonder why you are doing this; think of that poor avocado pit at the bottom of the compost pit. If you can remember which way is up, keep reaching for the sky. It is up there, trust the avocado and have faith in yourself.