First off, you never have to become anything you are not already.  Art is your creative expression, the hard part is accepting yourself.  No artist knows what their creation will end up becoming.  Great artists never feel as though their art is finished, not even after it has been shown to the world.  The only reason people cannot express their art is because of the suppression of individualism in society.  It’s a constant cycle of abuse, starting from your childhood and continues endlessly.  Knowing this and accepting this is the first step to self development as an artist.

Do you remember how wonderful it felt to color and draw as a child?  Everyone drew, sang, acted and expressed themselves freely as a child.  You were innocent and had no intention other than being yourself and doing what you could with what you had.  A stick became a wand, a crayon became a microphone, your coloring book was a canvas and your books were movies, even video games had little plot and you had to imagine the tiny characters being real things.  Now you have to buy a Harry Potter stick, a crayon is in 3d, coloring books are online flash games, books are made into actual movies and video games are just longer movies.  You no longer have to imagine anything, now you are told what to think.  All these conditionings lead you to believe that things have to be a certain way, you no longer allow your mind it’s true potential.  This is what is happening to art and this is how our individualism is being tormented.

When you sing well, people tell you to go audition for American Idol.  When you have an incredible natural expression, you are immediately thrown into the deep end and expected to compete.  Compete?  What happened to just being yourself and loving the innocense of not judging your own inner expression?  Some say that competing is more of a celebration, celebration of what?  We are not naturally competetive, competition comes from the constant struggle of trying to prove yourself, when really you don’t need to do anything to be yourself and accept yourself.

Knowing how society suppresses individualism allows you to understand how others are manipulated, then you can easily distinguish what to do with your expressions.  It’s a form of mind control, but if you can harness this insight and condition your own inner expressions, then you can become the famed artist.  It takes time to understand what triggers people, you have to start observing every detail of your life to understand.  I started by looking at all the shapes I deal with everyday, like signs for example.  Take a stop sign, it’s red, it has 8 sides, it has harsh corners, yet is circular at the same time, the color scheme is red and white.  Red is a color people use to symbolize alertness and that color plays alertness in a persons mind.  The sharp yet circular shape with even number sides shows a calm yet sharp and balanced sincerity in a person’s mind.  White is the most intense color because it is created by using all colors, so that displays the message strongly.  This was just a simple stop sign, but everyone responds to it as a stop sign.  Now try breaking down something that is far more detailed, this will give you insight into what people respond to.  The key is staying conscious and aware constantly, you must continuously keep yourself in the present moment to keep on top of all the changes society brings.  Art is not static, it changes every moment and it evolves constantly, so must you to stay on top of it.

Practice is obviously the most important key to mastering art.  This means that you quit thinking of art as a task, quit thinking reaching for the end product and allowing things to evolve naturally.  Your creativity is not limited to what everyone else has done or what is out.  Art starts from a very basic starting place and eventually evolves into the end product.  So constantly thinking about the completion of art, holds you back.  Especially if you tend to be an anxious or fearful person.  No, you were not born to be an artist, you were born with expressions.  Allow yourself to be free of judgment and bias, quit thinking about what other people will think and express yourself.  Keep expressing yourself until you become a master.  A master is an artist that can express themselves effortlessly, no longer needing input from other people to know they are.  They are what?  An artist.