Artists: Prosper!

By Christy Strauch

Do you resist getting started making your art? Ever hear a loud, critical voice in your head that says your work stinks? Ever fear letting anyone even see your art, let alone buy it?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Creative Peace Press
• Release date: Jun 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781734736526

Christy Strauch

By day, Christy Strauch is the Possibility to Profit coach. She helps creatives turn their chaotic pile of creative possibilities into a profitable business. She is the author of five books, including Artists: Prosper! and an accompanying workbook, Artists Unstuck! These latest two books, plus her business plan book Passion, Plan, Profit, are the result of years working with clients, especially creatives, who were smart, savvy and educated, but who struggled with getting their work into the world. They would often tell her they were too creative to handle money. She used to think that was possible, until one day she realized that handling money required second grade math. There had to be something else going on. And there was. That something else was trauma.Thanks to the Universe putting a host of the right people, books and programs in her life, from the Phoenix Friends of Jung, to Embracing Our Selves by Hal and Sidra Stone, and a master voice dialogue teacher, she discovered a way to work with trauma that has been around forever: parts work. This is her destiny: helping creatives realize that what's blocking them from getting their work into the world isn't lack of information, laziness or God forbid, stupidity. It's a logical response to trauma, and there are powerful tools to work with, mitigate and heal those responses.By night she does her own art; playing the ukulele, singing, and drawing cartoons. She holds an MBA from UCLA and has spent years studying her fellow human beings and what makes us all tick, so she can help alleviate suffering-hers and others.She lives peacefully in Arizona, surrounded by beautiful art, shelves of books, and a view of Camelback Mountain.

Book preview

SECTION ONE: MAKE PEACE WITH YOUR BRAIN

You’re a creative genius. I know it’s hard to claim that title consistently, or ever, but you are. You have something to say, emotions to evoke, people to provoke, beauty to invoke (okay, I’m getting carried away with rhyming words). My point is, what you do matters, for yourself and the people who need your work in the world. On some level, you know this, or you wouldn’t be reading this book.

BEING A CREATIVE GENIUS HAS ITS PERKS

You get to make, perform, write, speak, paint, sculpt amazing things. You get to bring work into the world that no one has seen before. You get to participate in the universal flow of creativity. You bring joy, excitement, amazement and change to the world. You’re part of the birthing of new ideas and breakthroughs, part of changing the culture, providing beauty, clarity and light to the planet.

THE DOWNSIDE IS THAT YOU HAVE VOICES IN YOUR HEAD

You know those voices. The ones that say, Of course you can do your art. But clean your desk/tidy your studio/call your brother/sort your socks first. THEN you can start. Or that say, Good try, but not good enough. You can’t quite pull off what you’re trying to accomplish. No reason to waste your time working on THAT anymore. Or, For God’s sake, don’t show THIS to anyone. You’ll never live it down.

You’re probably also painfully aware that these voices rarely rest. They keep up a running monologue of the awful thoughts that make you feel like your limbs are made of lead, that it’s too hard to get out of bed, let alone compose or build or produce anything. There’s no use in trying and anyway, don’t you need to sew all the missing buttons on those shirts you’ve been hiding in your closet for the past five years?

WHATEVER IT TAKES, THESE VOICES ARE DETERMINED TO KEEP YOU FROM MAKING ANYTHING

If you have tried to put your art into the world, you already know what it feels like when you don’t have a peaceful brain. The voices are relentless. Maybe they’re soft and insidious, or loud and profane. Or maybe they change tactics depending on the circumstances. In any case, you know what it’s like when those voices try to stop you from starting, keep you from finishing, or prevent you from showing your work to anyone. I’m guessing you’re already well-acquainted.

DOES ANY OF THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?

Do you have a stack of almost finished paintings (It’s just about the process, right? I don’t actually need to finish them, do I?), or a couple of books on your laptop you haven’t touched for a year (my best friend hated both of them so there’s no point in continuing to write, is there?), or an idea for a cartoon you haven’t been able to sit down and start working on (my drawing skills aren’t quite up to par; I need to take more classes), or you’ve written songs you haven’t performed, practiced your guitar but can’t get yourself to join a band, or have you written a book of poems you haven’t shown to anyone? If you feel like there’s a boulder sitting on your chest as you read this, you know what it’s like to be paralyzed by the voices in your head keeping you from starting, finishing, and showing your art. It’s