When I was pregnant with my second child, I had just finished a four-year marathon of co-founding a software company, moving across the country and having my first child. My mind and my body were screaming for relief. I needed to get out of my head for awhile. So I took a pottery class. I never got very good at it, but I loved it. Pounding the clay on the bench to get the air bubbles out. The tug-of-war to center it on the wheel. Seeing something emerge seemingly straight from my imagination, through my hands and onto the clay. And then giving it up to the fire, letting the extreme heat have its turn, ultimately creating an end-result out of my control.
One evening after class, I struck up a conversation with the instructor about what it was like to do this full time, did she have another job etc. One part of the conversation still stands out to me:
She said, “I get tired of making blue pots. But that’s what people buy, so I keep making them.”
From a business perspective, this is a huge win. She was instinctively doing what I teach in my classes. She was observing her customers, seeing what they wanted and liked and then doing more of that. In blue pots, she found the holy grail of “product-market-fit”. But I think in her eyes, she viewed it as selling out–producing her art for money vs. love.
I don’t see it quite the same way. I think if the muses are calling you to do something – paint, write, design, document, heal the planet, change the world — then you should do it. Do everything you can to let that work come through you. Without fear of what other people will think. This is not the time to ask the “market” what it wants and “pivot”.
But if you want to create a business around your love…
To have your passion play be your day to day…
If you want or need it to sustain not just your creative need but also your financial health…
Then perhaps you might find a way to reframe those thoughts and discover a bridge between what your soul wants to bring to life and the joy or meaning you can bring to the lives of others.
Because that’s the problem you, as an artist, are solving for people who buy your work. They might not be able to articulate the “why”, but I believe people explore and buy art because it touches something deep inside they may not be able to otherwise access.
Think of your blue pots not as a concession to what your customers want, but as a way for your gifts to meet people where they are. Because if people start to nurture their “deep-inside” parts with the blue pots, maybe the next time they interact with art (yours or someone else’s) those parts may be more open. More ready to receive the messages that art is trying to deliver.
And in exchange, those blue pots can allow you the joy (and all the other emotions!) of working the creative process every single day.
I send out a monthly-ish newsletter for women business owners who are interested in proven, real-world strategies, solutions, and ideas for growth. You can sign up here.
