How to Tell Your Dad You Are An Artist
He’ll react badly.
I’m just telling you this up front because you need to be ready for it.
It’s not his fault, really. He wants what’s good for you. Put yourself in his shoes for a moment – he helped bring you to this planet, kept you alive for years, accepted you through your awkward zit-mountain teenage nonsense, and now? Now this. Now… art?
Your father is worried about you. All he’s ever wanted is for you to be happy, to be successful, and to not get hurt.
Here’s the problem:
Art is rarely birthed from happiness. Artists are unlikely to find “success.” And Creatives, as a rule, get hurt often and badly.
And what is good for you is not what is best for you.
Luckily, there’s a way to break this news delicately.
Step 1: Remind him you’ve always been this way.
Tell him about the time you drew on the walls for his birthday as a kid. “Wasn’t I so proud of what I did?” you’ll say. “Don’t you remember how happy I was?”
And he’ll likely smile and shake his head slowly. Now you’ve got him nostalgic. Perfect.
Let him know that Creatives are born not made. You couldn’t resist this road. It has been bursting from your soul from the beginning. You must drink from the well of the Muse*.
Step 2: Remind him artists aren’t as poor as they used to be.
To some parents, “artist” is just another word for “person who lives in my basement for way too long.”
But you’re living in a different world than he grew up in. Remind him that Steve Scott reportedly made somewhere around $40,000 in a single month selling ebooks. Remind him that Grey Malin sells pictures of dyed sheep for hundreds of dollars a print.
Now you’ve got him thinking maybe he should be an artist too.
Even artists for hire (aka employees) can make a pretty good living. In a world of button-pushers, companies need somebody who can dream.
Step 3: Remind him you deserve it.
All relatives (and most people) are trained to look at the world a certain way. Once you say something which doesn’t fit their pattern, they’ll look for any reason to dismiss your claims. In fact, Creatives have never really fit in a pattern.
They will doubt you. They will misunderstand you. They will expect you to fail.
Want to know the best way around that?
Work.
Get up at 4 A.M. or stay up ’til 11. Get better at what you do. Show them you are a professional. Guess what Steven King did after he sold his first novel? He wrote another one. And another one. And then 51 more.
This isn’t about proving anyone else wrong. It’s about proving yourself right. It’s about digging deep, finding that talent you know is there, and then nurturing it like it’s the only thing in the world that matters.
Until one day it changes.
One day the world shifts.
One day they’ll realize this is what you were meant to do all along.
(This post is dedicated to my father, who is not at all like typical dads. You have always encouraged me to go after my dreams, to live and love with out abandon, and to go forward every day. I love you more than I could ever tell you)
