EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT TO OUR WORK, HOW TO KEEP IT HEALTHY
A few weeks ago I posted a reel on instagram of myself painting over a mural that I had painted the week before for an art show in Salt Lake City. The comments that I got on the post made me laugh; people were horrified and sad that I was painting over the mural! Several people even sent me messages asking me if I was doing ok.
This made me laugh, painting over the mural hadn’t made me sad at all. I knew that the mural would last just a couple of weeks. I wasn’t upset about painting over the mural, but it did get me thinking about something:
How do we let go of being emotionally attached to our work, and should we?
The fact is, as an artist I sometimes have to toe an interesting line. On the one hand, I strive to create work that I’m proud of and that represents the very best I can do. But on the other hand I can’t become too emotionally attached to my work because there’s always the chance that it might need to be changed, thrown out all together, or even painted over.
In 2022 alone, I’ve worked on 3 major projects that I loved which never made it to the real world. In one case, the client (a MAJOR international client who I was SUPER excited to be working with,) decided they weren’t actually ready for a rebrand. In another case the client decided that the mural I was designing for them would do better on a different wall than the one originally talked about, and the project has been stalled for over six months (that mural is pictured below.) For the third project, the broadway star who I was designing a poster for got sick and the show was canceled. In each of these instances, I still got paid for my work, but it’s frustrating to know that the work will never be seen or appreciated (and that I can’t even say the names of the clients!
Learning to deal with this sort of thing is something that has come with time and practice. The fact is, I create work almost everyday that will never be used in real life.
Here’s another story: earlier this year I was hired to create a logo for The Provo Farmers Market. As is always the case with a logo design, I created 4 sketch options of the design for the client to choose from. When I got their feedback, my junior designer Denise was in the studio with me. I told Denise that I had heard back from the Farmers Market and they had picked a favorite design! Her response surprised me, she said “Oh are you sad about the other designs that they didn’t choose?”
Honestly, I had never thought about that before. By the very nature of providing four designs for the client to pick from, it is assumed that there will be three designs left unused. That had never bothered me before, and I realized that the reason for this was that I wasn’t emotionally attached to the sketches. I have files upon files of unused designs that I love, but I also understand that it isn’t their time yet.
So how can you deal with having your work rejected? Or with creating work that never gets used? Here are three suggestions that I believe can help.
Number one: only create work that you are proud of.
What is worse than creating a great design that never gets used? Creating a bad designs that is published and out there in the world forever. If you are always making sure that you are doing your best, then you can find pride in your work even if it never makes it into the real world. This also helps in situations when a client has to pick one of your designs out of a group of several; if you love all the options you’re providing the client, then you’ll be happy regardless of which one they pick.
Number two: keep an open perspective.
When a client on a dream project decides that they don’t want to finish the project it can feel devastating. It’s easy to find yourself thinking that you’ll never find another opportunity as good as this one and that everything is over. But it’s not. There will always be another client out there who will appreciate your work. This experience is only a waste if you choose not to learn from it. Think of it as an amazing opportunity for practice.
Number three: find joy in your competitors' work.
In 2019 I was hired by Laurel Mercantile and HGTV to design a hand painted billboard for the outside of the shop. Not only was I excited about the client, but I was thrilled about the possibility of creating a design that combined my three main loves: hand lettering, illustration, and vintage inspired subject matter. I finished the design, set it off and was paid for my work, but didn’t hear anything about the billboard for a long time. About a year later I saw a picture on the Laurel Mercantile instagram of the billboard, but it wasn’t my artwork that was pictured on it! The design was totally different and featured an illustration of a train. My first reaction was sadness, I had loved working on the project so much and was disappointed to see it hadn’t been used. But my second reaction was appreciation. As much as I might not have wanted to admit it, the design they picked over mine was awesome, and I loved it. Jealousy and anger are not helpful or productive emotions. If you lose a job or someone else’s work is picked over yours, don’t be upset. Instead, be happy for them and be glad that there’s more good work out there in the world. As artists, we need to stick together and sometimes that means finding joy in the work of other people.
Number four: focus on the things within your control.
You can’t always decide if a project will make it to the real world, but you can always be working on creating new opportunities for yourself by reaching out to new clients and improving your own work. Don’t focus on the things you can’t control, instead do all you can to make yourself the best you can be.
To conclude, it’s important to find pride in your work, but at the end of the day, who we are is more important than what we create. Some of the things you create will be rejected, unused and forgotten about, but that’s no reason to stop creating and loving it. As long as you take pride in your work, stay true to yourself, and do your very best, you can sleep easy knowing that things will work out. If you have thoughts on the topic, I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment below and thanks for reading!