How Obscurity Can Be A Good Thing For The Artist
I just paused the audio book I’m listening to write this down; Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. He says, “I get a lot of emails from young people who ask, ‘how do I get discovered?’ I sympathize with them. There is a kind of fallout that happens when you leave college… Your professor gets paid to pay attention to your ideas and your classmates are paying to pay attention to your ideas. Never again in your life will you have such a captive audience… Most of the world doesn’t necessarily care about what you think… This is actually a good thing, because you want attention only after you are doing really good work. There is no pressure when you are unknown.”
There is a good amount of truth in what he said, or wrote and all kinds of artists should learn this. Yes, it is true that obscurity is the enemy of the artist. Every artist craves attention, just like the entrepreneur craves for his product to be known. If a product seems invisible, it will not be bought.
Everybody is an artist, right from the baker to the sculptor.
What shall we say? Is obscurity the enemy of the artist? No, obscurity is the enemy of the professional artist. It is a friend to the novice. The novice should be in no haste to want to be known to the world. All novices feel that. They want to be known, seen, admired, and celebrated. But what exactly are we going to celebrate when you come to find you out? Your awful work? I thought so too. You want to be celebrated for the good work you put out.
The professional is always facing judgements and criticism which is in a way good for his growth. The beginner cannot stand this. Why? The fact that he is not worth criticizing is enough reason. Because the moment you are known, you’re in the ring to take a few punches.
The novice has an advantage. The advantage where he is not known and can create freely without pressure. Like Austin said, “this is actually a good thing, because you want attention only after you are doing really good work.”
