The Problem with Competition

There is no competition.

FS4184CT24 - 6 x 4.5 inches - collage on paper - Brooklyn

The Problem with Competition

For any creative in any field of the arts the problem with competition is that there isn’t any. No one can compete with any artist at being themselves. Only you can be you. We can all copy each other or emulate each other or try to follow along the same trail but in the end there is no satisfaction in trying to be someone else.

At the beginning, when we are trying to figure out who we are and what we like and what interests us enough to go though all of the effort to pursue it, eventually we will be looking for our own voice and expressing it.

Our voice might have the voice of millions in it but below all of those influences is the individual voice, the only voice that can speak from the unique vantage point and state of mind that the individual artist occupies. For any one of us to learn to speak through our words or music or artworks it has to be developed out of a community for anyone to hear or understand what the artist is expressing. I talk about this in the following article.

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So focusing in on the idea of completion, my point is that the individual artist has no competition in a real sense. Competition only seems like an issue if you are in a mindset of scarcity. True, there are only so many galleries and so many collectors compared to the number of professional artists that there are. But the artist is a continuous fountain of abundance and of creativity and curiosity. Artists who are internally driven to pursue their creative life will keep going to matter what. Nobody can compete with that. It wells up from the unlimited depths of the artist’s being.

Being a creative person there is always a way to apply one’s creative capacity to carve out a place in the world. Artists don’t have to strive for recognition, acknowledgement, or fame and fortune and take a dog eat dog attitude. Bad idea.

A better idea is to connect yourself to your community, carry on conversations, develop a network and by that I mean a real network not a social media network of strangers. Artists don’t need fans, they need friends and relationships with other artists and creative people in general. People that speak your language and accept you for who you are, your tribe that you can share your thoughts with and that will share theirs with you.

The trick is to not be constantly looking at everybody as a resource you can use to get ahead. That is not being a friend, that is being an opportunist and people pick up on that. You can’t know who might be the right person at the right moment under the right circumstances, the doors to opportunity are invisible until they open. An answer to prayer can come from the most unlikely person at the most surprising time, even a total stranger. So we have to learn how to be friendly and to be a friend in order to have friends.

So, forget competing with others, there is no competition. Hence no reason for resentments or jealousy or envy or fear of missing out. That problem solved, it is time to get out there and mix with people and move them from strangers to acquaintances and from acquaintances to friends and from friends to old friends. Many artists often feel isolated and at the same time artists need plenty of solitude in the studio so, it is a balancing act. A person can only have so many close friends but you can have plenty of acquaintances. Learn and remember everyone’s name. Being attentive and interested makes a person interesting.

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