You Will Never Be an Artist – Let’s Rewrite the Story

“You will never be an artist.”

It’s a harsh sentence.

But the truth is… those words exist. And for many of us, they’ve landed somewhere deep.

Sometimes someone else has said them.
Sometimes we say them to ourselves.

And even now, after years in the creative world, I still notice that voice appear.

Where it begins

I think it often starts with comparison.

I remember being at school, drawing a portrait. Mine didn’t really look like a face. Someone else’s did. There was something in it I couldn’t understand at the time… but I could feel the difference.

That quiet moment of mine isn’t as good.

And that feeling has a way of staying with you.

Because when we’re surrounded by other people’s work, it’s so easy to measure ourselves against it.

I’m not the best at art 

For a long time, I felt like art didn’t come naturally to me.

I’d sit in classes and watch people sketch effortlessly. They understood proportion, perspective, colour… in a way that felt instinctive.

I had to think. Measure. Try again.

And I remember wondering, what’s mine?

I tried everything.

Drawing. Painting. Different materials.

And slowly, I started to notice something.

Not what I was good at… but what I enjoyed.

For me, it was working with materials that had a life of their own. Letting things move, shift, respond. A kind of conversation between me and the piece.

That’s when it started to feel lighter.

Not easier, necessarily. But more like me.

The ups and downs

Creativity isn’t steady.

There are moments where everything flows. You feel connected, inspired, full of ideas.

And then there are moments where it all goes quiet.

You question yourself. You wonder if you’ve lost it. You start to hear that phrase again… maybe I’m not an artist after all.

But I’ve come to see that as part of it.

Not something going wrong.

Just something shifting.

What does being an artist mean?

“I will never be an artist.”

When you sit with that, it often comes back to a definition.

An idea of what an artist should be.

Someone who sells. Someone who’s recognised. Someone who’s technically perfect.

But when you strip it back…

An artist is someone who creates.

That’s all.

There was a time I stopped making art completely.

I thought I’d lost it.

But looking back, I hadn’t. It was just showing up differently. In how I dressed, how I saw things, what I was drawn to.

Creativity doesn’t disappear.

It waits.

You are an artist

So when that phrase comes up now…

“You will never be an artist.”

I hear it differently.

Not as a stop sign but more like a nudge.

Something to notice, something to move through.

Because if you feel the pull to create… it’s there for a reason.

Remember:

Your voice isn’t something you earn.

It’s something you notice.

In your life. In your reactions. In the things that stay with you. That’s where your work comes from. That’s what shapes it.

And that’s what we come back to in Kickstart Your Art.

Not chasing a version of being an artist but noticing that you already are.

If this speaks to you, you’re very welcome to join us. Click the link below to sign up:

https://unitedartspace.myflodesk.com/ksya

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Have a great week & take care,

Michelle xo