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One of the unforeseen outcomes of having lived through several years of uncertainty, disruption, and shifting support structures due to the global challenges we have all had to face, is the recognition that the external conditions that we had come to rely on are incredibly fragile. This affected artists in many different ways. While some found the changes we all experienced through 2020 and 2021 offered them space for creative projects they hadn’t otherwise been able to get to, others felt disconnected and unsure of what could replace the motivators for making their art. Exhibition opportunities dried up, open studios were no longer possible, art fairs were canceled. All of these places where artists typically were able to share and sell their work were suddenly gone. Many artists I worked with during that time felt challenged to continue producing work. The usual drivers that they used to motivate themselves, innovate around, and that caused them to push into new territories or even overcome resistance to making new work, were just not there. So what now? What motivates us to go to the studio if we don’t have any place to show our work? I think this time brought up some interesting things for us to consider around our art-practice – not only about how to negotiate the changing external circumstances, as they did in 2020, but when we’re not accepted into an exhibition or our gallery proposal is turned down. If our art-making hinges on external validation and opportunities, what do we do when all that changes and we don’t have access to what worked for us before? We have to have something untouchable, something that anchors us – no matter what – to making our art. The foundational ground of art-making, and for any form of creative work, is to actualize a life purpose. This gives meaning to our lives. Art-making is meaning-making. This is the untouchable, unchangeable tether we need to create for ourselves as artists. This will always be a driver that moves us to make our work – no matter what has changed for us. In recent months, as things have opened back up and opportunities once again arrive for us, some artists feel as if they lost ground during that time and are now struggling with how to resume a practice. They may notice that they have been changed by life, and now their work will, and should be, a reflection of that change. But how can they access that space, that inner terrain of self that has been altered in so many ways?
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