u/fyllindtess

Hello everyone! I'd like some advice or support on how to cope with the frustration I feel when, after years of struggling with art block, I've started posting my art but receive almost no feedback. I feel invisible.

I've managed to regain my active artistic inspiration and begin developing as an artist again, with the goal of making this my life's work, painting for commissions, and eventually selling my paintings. I want to find balance in my deep, experimental approach, in philosophy—it's my source of inspiration. I enjoy the synthesis of poetry and drawing, playing with words and meanings, and seeking expression for complex feelings. How can I combine this part of myself and find expression for it in the modern world, with its rapidly changing pace and content overload, and position myself without shame so that people want to commission my work? I work in the styles of surrealism, and am interested in abstractionism and symbolism. I feel like I'm doing something wrong. I'm inspired by my approach, but every time I go out into the world, online, and post, I'm simply exhausted. I'd be grateful for your advice on how to find this balance and stop feeling like a perpetual impostor and invisible to others. Where would it be more appropriate for me to express myself and find my audience?

(I used translations)

Hello everyone! I'd like to ask for advice or support on how to deal with the feeling of frustration when, after years of struggling with art block, I start posting my art, but get almost no feedback. I feel invisible, and I pathologically compare myself to others who receive more attention for sometimes less effort. I'm not devaluing anyone, nor am I trying to say that anyone is better or worse. It simply speaks more to my feeling of hopelessness and loss, which is most likely caused by my anxiety disorder. I've managed to regain my active artistic inspiration and begin developing as an artist again, with the goal of making it my life's work.

All the years that I was unable to draw at full strength, I reflected a lot and came up with my own methodology in order to create something that would resonate with me, developing my style and vision. This is my meaning of life, to express my symbolic images, to improve the technique of performing works, to make them more alive, multifaceted, to experiment and so on, this is all a whole story, which I will not go into now. I'm trying to work more intensively and regularly, developing my own system of activity, and testing it, experiencing it again and again. Each piece of work has deep value for me, and I invest a lot of mental energy into it. And I feel like it's not enough. While I still have many unfinished, raw works, I'm gradually getting closer to the desired results (but I'm quite the perfectionist, and this is also exhausting.) Because of this, it's difficult for me to regularly post work, although it's necessary if you want to make a career out of it. I'm training myself to appreciate both sketches and rough art, but I experience chaos. I feel like I'm doing nothing. That it costs nothing, that it’s all invisible, that there is an easier way, but I can’t do otherwise.

And this is perhaps my hidden depression speaking. But I have partially conquered that part of myself that regularly capitulated every time I felt disgusted with my art, with the process. This gives me hope. But now a new obstacle has emerged – the feeling that my thoughts, ideas, my work, my style, the approach to work that inspires me, literally gives me meaning and happiness in today's circumstances, the rush of content, and the social media landscape – are too quiet, thoughtful, and slow, and it's not yet easy for me to share my thoughts publicly. I'd like to paint for commissions, but because of all these thoughts and feelings of heaviness, I feel like I'm at risk of burning out again. How can I find this balance? Your answers will be valuable to me; at the very least, I'd be glad to hear from you.

Well, this text here is already my small victory. It was translated from another language; I hope it's understandable and there are no major errors. Thank you for your attention.