Next weekend will be my very first 3-day craft show. I've been enjoying the preparation, the painting, the art-supply-buying, but I hit a wall a few days ago.
I was standing, looking at the pieces that I'd finished, the pieces I'd worked hard on and loved, and suddenly was bombarded with worry. "Are these paintings good enough?" "Will they sell?" "Am I a moron for entering this show?" "What if I don't make enough money to cover my entry fees?" Looking down at my art in that moment, I could see every flaw, every possible problem, every reason to never try to sell my work again. So I walked away, curled up on the bed in my husband's office (it's also a guest room), and just lay there feeling weird about my art, not able to lable it as stress or worry in that moment, just WEIRD. For me, I always struggle until I can pin-point what the problem is. As soon as I have a lable for what I'm feeling, the problem is half-solved! It took some laying on the bed, Ian praying with me, and then me researching blog articles (like this one about craft booth no-no's, and this one about selling as an introvert) for me to finally be able to lable what was wrong. I was scared! Which or may or may not seem silly to you, depending on how you react to big new things coming up. But when I finally realized that all this pent-up pressure in my chest and negative feelings towards my art wasn't because something was wrong with my art, but because I was scared of the event that was coming, I was able to loosen up and be proud of my work again. I needed more preparation, not more worry. I needed more knowledge of how things were going to go, not more self-criticism. And I needed a hug, so thank goodness for my wonderful supportive hubby <3
What do you do when worry and self-criticism get you stuck?