When I ask the question of why you want to sell your work, it's not to deter you from selling. I think the deeper question is how do you want to put out your work into the world?

I start with the selling question because it tends to throw people off. I think we assume that if we're going to produce something that it has to be sold because we've been programmed to believe that anything we spend time on is only worth making it if we can justify it through a dollar amount.

Not everything you make has to be for sale. Which is why I think so many makers get stuck and don't experiment. We feel this desire to create with other materials, techniques, etc, but then the guilt settles in because we're not sure if our curiosity will be justified.

I'm a big believer that creativity is a part of self-care and self-love. There are a huge variety of ways that people engage with self-care and for some reason no one blinks an eye when you say that you needed to get a massage or get your nails done to feel better. But the opposite happens when you say that you need to take care of yourself and you buy art materials and take a year to heal through art.

I have a different take on art. We all need it, we need you to create your work, we need you to express yourself through your ideas. The other thing that irks, is that the way our education system has trained us, we assume that our final product has to be absolutely perfect. We do that one essay, and we're expected to get an A on it.

No. The answer is not that. Do your idea once. And then do it again exactly the same way. And then do it a third time, maybe even a fourth. You know what's going to happen? You'll probably add an iteration, improve, get faster, and most likely perfect your technique.

We get so stuck on this idea that everything we make has to be perfect. Make it less about the final product and start noticing the steps that you really enjoy. Sometimes I stop and think, "man, I loved that paint stroke," or "oooh, I'm getting better and better at soldering." And I like to say it out loud, congratulate yourself out loud. It'll sit with you and you'll start to get excited about improving and improving is all about the process, NOT the final outcome.

Thanks so much for reading and take care,

Caitlin