The crazy highs and lows of being an artist and how to cope better #HTipT #194

You can manage the crazy highs and lows of being an artist. If you take Tracy Margieson’s advice you will find your peace within this rollercoaster of experiences.

 

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Video Transcript:

Hi. I’m Tracy Margieson, and I’m the project manager of the Arts Wellbeing Collective at Arts Centre Melbourne. And I’m here today to give you a hot tip about managing those crazy ups and downs that you face as an artist and creative. In a weird way, it’s almost like we’re trained to expect our career to be a roller coaster. You know, you slog away at building something and it’s tough, and you think it’s never gonna be any good, and you seep into this dark place, and then it goes okay and the show opens and there’s a standing ovation and you feel like it you’re flying and it’s totally awesome. And everyone thinks you’re a rock star and then you go home and you take out the garbage, and you feed the cat, and you wonder how you’re gonna make rent, and you come right back down again. And repeat. How do we manage this roller coaster of emotions?

It’s really tough. We’ve had this idea of the tortured artist myth instilled in our psyches for years. This idea that you have to be dark and depressed to create, and then the high comes with the work, it’s the payoff for that dark place. But you can’t sustain this. It’s tiring and it’s hard. It’s also risky. What if the lows last longer, or if the highs aren’t so high anymore? We might have moments of darkness in a creative process, but what about when it comes to exhibiting, selling work, negotiating commission, managing venue hire, making reproductions and prints, setting ticket prices, welcoming family and friends to the show, doing publicity, meet and greet VIPs? You need to be as well as you can be. Can’t risk being in this dark place and being in these lows a whole time. So, how do we make sure that the highs are still high, but the lows are kind of, you know, dense rather than these sort of gaping holes?

The key here is that we’re gonna look for opportunities to kind of flatten out this roller coaster effect. And this will help you to widen your focus but it will ultimately create a much more sustainable practice. An example of this, I attended a workshop where a Broadway producer spoke of having this massive success in the ’90s. It was unprecedented success. The day after the reviews came out and the pre-sales sold, so back in the days where you’re reducing the newspaper did make or break your show, he said he saw it and he saw the pre-sales in the box office and he went, “This is a big fat hit.” And then he went to bed and he stayed there for months. He said he was just physically and emotionally exhausted, and relieved, and just completely spent.

Ever since that experience, he created a self-imposed rule to schedule a workshop or a meeting for the very next day after opening night where they’d explore and develop their new project. He shared how this allowed him to see the project as one in many and not the be-all end-all of his career. And it gave him something to look forward to and to get stuck into, no matter what the outcome of opening night, whether it was a great high or it was a low. It kind of already passed, he kind of mentally was in the next project. This put that power and that control back in his hands. He was no longer depending on the opinions of others for his self-worth. He was prepared and going, you know, “This high is happened but rather than crashing low, I’m actually coming down to about here. Because I’m not going to start this next project I have to have energy.”

So, what I want you to do is to think about an upcoming high. Maybe it’s the moment when you finish the work, maybe it’s opening night. And I want you to find a way to just flatten it out for yourself ever so slightly. Maybe you want to intercept it and put in a celebration just before you finish the work rather than that huge wash of relief at the end. Maybe skip the opening, massive opening night party and organize a mid-season party instead so that you celebrate making it through three amazing shows and not just one. Look for lots of highs. There are lots of moments when we go, “Opening night night was really cool. Actually second night was really cool. Third night was really cool. Finishing the work was cool. Starting the work was cool.” Look for lots of opportunities for highs, not that one big high that inevitably can give you a really crashing low. And of course the best thing about this hot tip is it’s giving you permission for more festivities. So, I hope you found it useful and if you’d like to find out more about Arts Centre Melbourne or the Arts Wellbeing Collective, visit artswellbeingcollective.com.au.

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