Talent, Training and then what?

Friday musings...

So you have all this potential;  And you are doing your best to balance paying rent, taking lessons, coachings, and building the training of your craft - and...

How are you feeding yourself as an artist?  If you have all this talent and potential, and you have gone through initial training, and are auditioning and trying to pursue a career...how do you feed the spirit of the artist?

Often we can get so wrapped up in what things cost that we forget what things are worth.

Being "trained talent" is not the same as being a "living artist".  If we want to pursue career as artist, we need both, but we can be running and doing so much that you forget to feed the spirit.  This is truly what 'starving artist' means.

So how do you feed your artistic spirit?  

Do you listen?  What do you listen to? When do you listen?  Feeding the artistic spirit requires time and space.  Do you listen to more than just singers who sing your repertoire?  Do you listen to more than singers? Do you seek out and find the music that moves you? Challenges you? Energizes you? Calms you? Moves you to tears?  Makes you dance?   

Do you listen as a focus and not just as a background?  

Do you create?  Do you find ways of creating and creative process outside of your singing?  Do you cook? Do you bake? Do you have a garden? Herbs? Do you write? Journal? short stories? plays? monologues? poetry?  Do you take time to find these creative outlets that feed your spirit fully?

Running from one audition to another does not feed your artistic spirit.  Running from class to class and lesson to lesson does not feed your artistic spirit.  YOU and ONLY YOU can feed that spirit.  

Do you observe? Do you go to museums? Do you go to art galleries?  Do you explore and discover color and texture and creative development of artists in other mediums?  Do you respond to that? How? Do you take the time to observe yourself, observing?

I cannot take credit for my husband, Thomas Young's brilliance - and he calls it "The 3 Ts - talent, training and temperament."  I shall use it here and share it with you - but I give him thanks publicly!  It is the TEMPERAMENT that separates those pursuing career only or are simply "trained" and those who are truly and deeply an artist.

And yet, an artist's temperament needs nurturing - in depth, in stillness, in breadth, in focus, in creative FORCE - that is beyond the talent and beyond the training.

If we do not recognize the FORCE of that temperament, we will starve it.  And if we starve it, the artistic spirit will shrivel up and die.  We must acknowledge the force of energy that is our artistic spirit and either feed it or abandon it.

You do not need tons of money to feed this spirit.  You need TIME, IMAGINATION and a willingness to EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITIES of YOUR SPIRIT.  

So you are talented; so you have done your training and continue to explore this as needed; 

NOW WHAT?  SO WHAT?

Create your space.  Create how your spirit is nurtured and breathes and thrives.  

Listen...observe...taste...touch...share...

Create the reality of your temperament which then informs your talent and your training!