Support Artists

During my yoga teacher training (see 2/27/23 Art Talk), I absorbed another lesson that I consciously apply to art: support your fellow sisters and brothers. Yoga is (well, should be) noncompetitive. But most of us are competitive to some degree. We aren’t born that way, we learn it. Of course, healthy competition has its place, generally in spectator sports. It has no place in the yoga world.

In applying this lesson to art, I make it my mission to “show up” for fellow artists whenever and however I can. This means attending their local art events, even events I have little interest in or may be inconvenient to me, or those (especially these!) for which I did not make the cut. It means “liking” and often commenting on their social media posts (trust me, they’re watching the number of “likes”). It simply means showing up.

If you’re not an artist but enjoy art, get out and support artists, those you know and those you don’t! Go to art-related events, buy art if you can, ask artists questions about their art. If online is your only avenue, follow artists you appreciate, hit the “like” button if you genuinely like what you see, comment on their posts (if your comment is negative, opt for politeness and keep it to yourself). Whether in person or online, let’s all make an effort to just “show up.”

photo: Visiting Kelly Moore, one of my favorite artists, in Tesuque, New Mexico