Your Studio Self-Talk

Once a month at the school we have a members-only coaching call. I've started to call it "art church."

Everyone hops on a call and we talk about our struggles around a certain topic. One month we talked about how to simplify complicated projects. Another month we talked about our creative role models. This past month we talked about our studio self-talk. It was a great session so I wanted to share some thoughts from it here.

When you're in the studio, how do you talk to yourself about what you're making?

What percentage of your reflection is curiosity?
What percentage of your reflection is criticism?

Curiosity is your "what if" mindset. It's expansive. It's about considering what has potential and energizing it.

Criticism is your "problem finding" mindset. It's about identifying current or future problems in the work and trying to solve them.


When you're trying to develop your voice as an artist, it's important to spend more time at curiosity and less at criticism. Here's why:


Think of the act of making something like sculpting a block of clay. If you're always chipping away at the clay, making it smaller, it doesn't have a chance to develop. Criticism has a "chipping away" energy. It's focused on what isn't working vs. building up what is. Sometimes this mindset can manifest problems before they're even problems. This can keep the work small, or worse ... suck the life out of the work completely.

Curiosity, on the other hand, is gentler. It's about building up the clay -- molding and shaping it. It's about listening and responding. Curiosity is about taking things in strides and knowing you can't predict the future.


So, what's your studio self-talk like?

Are you beating yourself up? (90% criticism)
Are you super excited about your work? (90% curiosity)
Are you somewhere in the middle?


Me, I'm about to head off to Italy for a few weeks, so I'm ready to re-up my curiosity with a whole lotta Caravaggios and this salami sandwich. Can't wait.

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