There's Beauty in the Struggle
THE BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE
Art is a beautiful thing and makes the world a better place.
It has inherit value because it adds beauty to our Earth. It injects creativity, imagination, color, and expression into a world that is full of negativity and pain. It can sooth the soul, provide clarity and radiate motivation.
To me, the most powerful feature is how it can add dramatic improvement and significance to someones life.
I’ve been creating ever since I was a little kid. My mom would always cherish and keep my work, but I just thought that’s what moms were supposed to do. It took me over 25 years to realize my creations could impact someone's life and hold a higher purpose than hanging on my parents fridge.
However, it has been a challenge unlocking this state of mind. In order to get to the point where you can contribute something beautiful, you have to go through the struggles. The process of failing has been crucial in my journey.
Without the conflict, you can't have progress.
Once you aren’t afraid to fail, you can embrace the art of hustling and put yourself on the fast track to crushing goals. I will cover this in a future post, however, today I’m going to share with you my struggle as an artist and the 6 principles I've learned through failing forward.
SELF DOUBT
I’ve doubted my abilities my entire life. I was convinced that successful artists came from big cities with wealthy families supporting them. They were simply born with natural talent and surrounded by opportunity. Failure didn’t exist within their DNA.
I didn’t fit any of these characteristics. I was just drawing over the years because it was one of the those things that made me feel good. I never thought I would have the talent to turn this into a career.
Throughout elementary, middle school and high school, drawing was just a hobby that I kept to myself. There were other priorities in my life that prevented me from taking myself too seriously. This carried over to college. My focus was playing football and having fun. I was getting good grades, but I sensed something was off. I felt lost and lacked a purpose, just like so many of us feel.
Yet again, I was still drawing here and there and taking art classes. The little bit of creating I was doing kept the coal smoldering into what is now my fiery passion.
Upon graduation, I had taken many art related courses; ceramics, painting, art history, print making and graphic design just to name a few. I never stood out in any because I hadn't applied myself. Graphic design is what I chose to pursue because it was a modern medium and I felt my chances of getting a job in this field would be easier.
I was seriously mistaken.
REJECTION
After graduating in 2010, I was thrown into the real world as a fresh 21 year old who was immature and lacked a strong portfolio. Many of my friends immediately landed great jobs and it seemed like they had it all figured out. I’ve always landed jobs in the past because of some sort of connection but this was far from the case. To make matters worse, I had to move back home with my parents and lost that adult independency I had gained in college.
Within a 3 year span, I must’ve been declined from about 20 job interviews. It was blow after blow of rejection. I never fully understood nor took the time to analyze or ask questions why I wasn’t considered. That was a huge mistake as it delays progress.
I was able to make a modest living within that stretch of time by serving at a restaurant, coaching high school football, and personal training at a gym. I kept my creativity alive and tried to have some fun by running a small, t-shirt clothing line. These were my early stages of vectoring my hand drawn art and taking interest in typography. However, it was just a hobby and I never saw anything of value coming from it.
The daily feeling of defeat was overwhelming and I was in the constant state of feeling sorry for myself. Depression set in and I perceived myself as a massive failure to my family and friends.
Why was I still pursuing art?
What do I have to show for it?
Creating was fun, but the extra effort I spent chasing it started to look like a waste of time. I never had a vision of what I wanted to become, nor did I see any potential in my abilities. I didn't have any goals.
How are you supposed to crawl your way out of a hole if you don't have something to work towards?
While I was working at the gym, I went home one night and remembered praying to God to show me a sign. I was fed up with the situation I was living in and needed a change.
The next morning I awoke to a phone call. It was a job offer for a graphic design position. The day before, three different people referenced my name to the employer who was needing a replacement asap. These people all knew of my work through the clothing line and recommended me for the job. The 3 years of pursuing art in my down time had paid off. This was the first moment it ever felt like I was doing something right.
Now that I had gotten a foot in the door and was gaining experience, I assumed that I’d be moving up the ladder quickly in the graphic design business. Nonetheless, this only led me to a whole new world of conflict I had yet to experience.
TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF
Being new to this segment of the graphic design industry, I was put in a prime position to be taken advantage of. I’ve already been taken advantage of countless times from my past jobs and doing side freelance artwork, but this was a different breed.
I went through the daily routine of being over worked as I was the only designer. I felt under paid for the bills and student loans I had accumulated. Getting time off was virtually impossible and there was no benefits. I assumed that was the way it was supposed to be. As you know from my last post, I’m a sucker for words of affirmation. Well this was the kind of place where you never heard that you did a good job. Positive encouragement was absent.
Regardless of the circumstances, I was happy to be doing art as a living and was extremely thankful to gain the experience. I knew I was doing a good job and used a new found determination to work hard and create a better opportunity for myself.
I set goals to get better and outperform every aspect of collateral that was created before me. I studied all of the work we had on file as well as our competitors, analyzing where I could improve it and inject my own flare.
Everyday I was aggressively surfing online scavenging for tutorials, inspiration and tips of typography to enhance my logos and advertising. I vastly improved my communication and customer relation skills working with local and out of state clients and vendors. I established relationships and was able to start reading their minds and envision what I knew they were wanting. The praise I received from these people made me realize that I was cut out for this field after all.
As the months went by, my confidence and skills grew tenfold. I started applying this work ethic at home in my personal work. The harder I worked at home on my art, the better my art was getting at work. On the contrary, the more I kept studying and finding ways to improve at work, my artwork at home greatly benefited.
This is where things started to become fun and more freelancing opportunities were coming in. I was motivated to keep progressing my personal style and create a niche for myself in the art community. I was having a ton of fun with art outside of work, but my day job was weighing my spirit down and I dreaded going in each day.
Within my two year tenure, the workplace atmosphere had become toxic. I was mistreated and taken advantage of too many times. It felt as if I was "owned" when I was on the clock.
THE TURNING POINT
I hit a ceiling at my current workplace and used all the great content I had produced in and out of work to build a stellar portfolio. One that I was truly proud of compared to the garbage I made in college.
I was a bit nervous applying for a new position as the memories of all my past failed attempts haunted my mind. It was a totally different scenario this time around. After a few quick interviews and call backs, I got the job where I am currently employed at today.
It felt so good for once to have been highly coveted for my skills and I knew it happened because I worked my tail off to get there.
People need to realize,
you have to put in the time to get the results you desire.
Acquiring this job changed my life. I did more than just obtain a new job title, I learned that all of those failures I endured were just obstacles on my journey. They were providing me direction. When things weren’t working, I had to shift my course and try to fix what was wrong and learn from it.
It was a beautiful thing.
FAILURE ONLY EXISTS IF YOU LET IT
Most people view failure as an end point. They see it as an opportunity to quit.
I see failures as variables in an equation that will lead to the results I want to achieve. These are variables I need to constantly adjust so I can continue moving on the correct path.
Failures expose just one way that didn’t work on your journey. Think of it as you are gaining clarity in your vision. You have to have the mindset that there is something you can take away from it and apply that knowledge to your course of action.
The beauty of my struggles have taught me 6 principles that I apply to my everyday life:
Commitment
Perseverance
Sacrifice
Accountability
Confidence
Positivity
These are the building blocks of which drive my illustrative lettering. They are my values that aid me in reaching my goals of making Perspective-Collective a full time job in the near future. I will achieve this with the overlap technique and use my current job as way to transition to my dream.
There truly is beauty in the struggle and my story is the epitome of the phrase. It has given me the self awareness that I can make an impact by sharing my failures through illustrative lettering. My artwork serves as a symbol to my words of encouragement for those who have shared the same struggles I have.
There is beauty within your struggle and you deserve to live the life you want.
I want people to know that failing is progress if you use your ability to persevere and overcome the obstacles that arise. They are all apart of the equation.
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If this post has helped you by any means or if you have any questions or issues you’d like me to cover, you can sign up for my upcoming newsletter or email me directly. I’d love to hear from you so I can keep on growing as an artist and teacher.