Nobody likes to talk about failure in art. Let alone experience it. But risk-taking and creativity go hand in hand. That’s why artists shouldn’t shy away from taking risks in their creative career. Here is why it is important to take risks in art and how you will benefit from being a risk-taking artist!
Failure in art. That’s usually something nobody wants to talk about. Let alone experience and admit to it.
However, without risk-taking your art would remain at the same level and your artistic talent would fall victim to your fears.
Every creative endeavor requires us to be courageous and to take risks. You cannot separate risk-taking and creativity. Every time you are creating new things, you’ll need to get comfortable with the possibility of failure.
That’s why artists need to take risks, too.
In today’s blog post, we are going to talk about why it is important to take risks in art and what benefits you get from being a creative risk-taker.
Let’s get into it!
Do artists take risks?
The moment you decide to pursue your calling as an artist, you are taking a risk.
You must pluck up the courage to realize your creative vision and put it out there to the world to be seen and judged by everyone. You must be able to deal with the fear of rejection, criticism, and failure.
It is a risk to invest into the creative tools you need to make art, while you are not sure if it’s going to pay off or not. Starting a creative business and trying to make a living with your art is a risk. You don’t know if you are going to succeed or to fail.
Taking risks is inevitably part of being an artist and having a creative business. The sooner you realize that it is important to be a risk-taking artist, the faster you’ll progress in your artistic development.
Why is risk important in creativity?
If you want to create meaningful art, you’ll need to take risks. Why do I say so? Because without risks, your art remains meaningless and empty.
Even the great masters in history knew that it is important to take risks in art. Picasso, for example, realized that creative risk-taking helped him advance on his artistic path:
“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
Meaningful art makes people feel something. Something they can relate to. This can only happen when the artist puts their heart and soul into their work.
Being authentic with your art also means being vulnerable. Vulnerable to opinions, criticism, and judgment of the world around you.
Taking the risk of being vulnerable in your art is important, because this is when the magic happens. This is when you make people feel, relate to your art, and maybe help them see the world with new eyes.
What does it mean to take risks in art?
Taking risks in art isn’t different from taking risks in other areas of life.
Risk-taking in creativity means that you are doing things that put you at the risk of failing. This can include anything from learning new skills, trying out new techniques or mediums, or expressing yourself through your art in a way that makes you vulnerable.
Making ‘pretty art’ is so much easier than making ‘honest art’ – art that includes a part of your self. It’s risky because it’s sincere.
It’s risky because you are exposing a part of your soul and putting it on display for everyone to judge. Others will not always agree with it. They won’t understand it, they won’t like it, and some will even hate it.
So should artists take risks in their art?
Yes, definitely. Here are three reasons why it is beneficial to be a creative risk-taker!
3 Reasons why it is important to take risks in art
REASON #1: You can set off in the direction that works.
Most people don’t dare to take risks because they are afraid to fail. However, if you changed the way you look at failure, you would quickly realize that failure is a great pointer to lead you in the right direction.
When you take the risk to try out something new and it doesn’t work, you know how to change your course in order to find something that works better.
By taking risks, you move from uncertainty to knowing. You’ll get to find out what works and what doesn’t. That’s why it is important to take risks in art.
If you don’t challenge yourself with your art, you cannot get better. If you keep doing the same thing over and over again, you’ll also keep seeing the same results over and over again.
On the other hand, when you try new stuff and fail, you’ll be able to make progress. And you will never just fail. Once you start taking on small challenges on a regular basis, you’ll soon be seeing positive results!
REASON #2: You speed up your artistic growth.
As you begin to take risks on your creative path, you’ll be able to speed up your artistic growth in many areas.
First of all, you’ll be able to grow as an artist. You can refine your technique, learn to use different mediums, develop your art unique style, and experiment with new themes and subject matters.
But there are many more facets to being an artist. At some point in time, you might want to take your passion to the next level and start your own art business. Taking the risk of jumping into entrepreneurship can open up the opportunity of making a living with your passion.
Along the line, you might decide to build a website for your art. That way, you’ll be able to expand your skillset even more. At first glance, it may sound daunting – after all you are coming from the creative realm and are not used to dealing with the techy stuff from the backend.
But creating your own artist website is not as hard as it may look. There are lots of easy-to-use website builders for artists that make is super-simple to design a website. In fact, web design nowadays requires more creative skills than techy skills. (ᴖᴥᴖ)
Squarespace and Wix are two of the best website builders for artists. Why? Because they come with a lot of beautiful premade templates geared towards visual creatives like photographers, painters, digital artists, etc. They are extremely easy to use and allow you to create website with portfolio and shop at just a couple of clicks. (Check out the Squarespace review for more.)
I built this website all on my own using WordPress, the OceanWP theme and the Elementor page builder. WordPress comes with a slightly steeper learning curve. But if you are willing to put in the work, you’ll be rewarded with the highest flexibility and scalability a website can possibly have. In this blog post, I tell you everything I did to create this website.
When you go down that route, then another part of your learning process will be marketing. In order to make money with your work, you’ll need to know how to market your art.
You see there are a lot of skills you might want to learn that help you make your art business succeed. The more skills you learn, the more risks you take, and the more potential you open up for your artistic growth!
REASON #3: You develop a growth mindset.
Continually leaving your comfort zone and challenging yourself will help you develop a growth mindset. This is not only a great benefit for your creative career but for life in general.
Over time, you will have more mental strength and the courage to dream bigger. When you begin conditioning your mind to get comfortable with the idea of failure, you’ll be able to move forward more quickly when something doesn’t work out the way you intended.
Cultivating a growth mindset will help you develop creative confidence, perseverance, and resilience. This will not only help you keep going with your art, but also to keep pushing your art business. Without a growth mindset, you are more likely to remain passive and complacent.
In other words, without taking risks you won’t be able to make progress. You won’t be able to grow as an artist. You won’t be able to grow your creative business and create more exposure for your art.
However, to keep your passion alive, you want to keep growing. That’s why it is important to take risks in art. Risk-taking will help you rekindle your creativity every time you experience a low.
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That being said, I wish you all the best on your creative path. I hope that this post helped you understand that risk-taking and creativity go hand in hand and that it is important to be risk-taking as an artist.
Let me know in the comments whether you now find it a bit easier to take risks in art and what the biggest risk was that you have so far taken in your artistic life. For me it was definitely going all-in with this website and making my passion a business!
Please leave comments and questions below. I’d love to hear from you! Make sure to sign up for my email list so you don’t miss out on new blog posts and other cool stuff. ♥
