Stability
Every day I draw from Patti Acres‘ cool card deck she’s named “Calling forth™ cards”. This morning at 5:30 I drew “Stability- Simply defined: to be stable; to have firmness in position; to have strength to stand or endure”
When I read the word, stability, my whole being relaxed. That feeling was interlaced with confidence and responsiveness. And it seemed an ironic choice for me this morning – a ying-yang draw, a two-sided coin toss – because right now I also feel the most at risk I’ve ever felt.
Stability seems to be a missing in the world of artists and art. Well, a missing in the world really.
Although I am right here, right now, living a life amongst some of the most extraordinarily stable circumstances and people I have ever experienced, I am feeling the earth slip from under my feet. I think it’s because I have made a commitment unlike any other before in any of my businesses – the same tenor of commitment that I made when I chose to be a mom – clear-eyed, enduring, tolerant, ferocious, unconditional and everlasting…and scary. I have given myself and every resource I have at my beck and call to creating this network for working artists and it has that unmistakable “all or nothing” knowing you have the moment you realize you are going to be a parent.
When I coach my clients with regards their marketing programs, I encourage them to boil their strategy down to a single word – a word they believe in, a word that defines who they are and what they are bringing to people through their service or products. For Jayne through her beautiful purses it’s “permission”. For Gary and his novels it’s “freedom”. For Magidah and all things related to dance, it’s “connection”.
As is often the case with coaches and consultants it is difficult for us to do for ourselves what we do for our clients. I couldn’t even get to my strategy with my own magnificent coach. My one-word marketing strategy eluded me…until this morning.
Stability.
That is what I am out to provide – for you, for other artists, for my clients, for the professionals who become part of this network, for the politicians and administrators and finance people with whom I spend my time. It’s also what I get to build and provide for myself and my family. The irony for me is that despite my internal shale ride and sense of impending doom in the face of the apparent crumbling of our economic structure as a nation and a global society, I see there is stability all around us.
It lives in the relationships with the people in our lives. It lives in your intentions and commitment with regard to you work and the essence of your vision and purpose it brings to the people who look at, collect, are moved by it. Stability is generated with every word you speak, every action you take when both are done in integrity with your passion, skills, and abilities – when you are true to your self.
Artists want and need some level of stability to be able to create, produce, dream, fail, destroy, recreate and make a living. Ultimately recognizing that your life – its context and content – is the product of your thoughts, words and actions gives you power over your experience.
Stability is further achieved when individual pieces are banded together.
WAN aspires to be the platform that stabilizes our seemingly unstable arts-based lives. Here is a place to find the missings that permeate being artist – business training that’s real and applicable to our unique indie biz models; affordable resources to create a safety net to catch us when we fall; yet other resources to help us grow and manage our careers in ways we cannot manage on our own. It’s a place to be successful just as we are…to do what we do the way we do it…to be seen for the intelligent, talented, aware, introspective, outgoing, contributing, connected, change agents we are.
WAN was built for us to pool our resources, to learn of and get to know one another, to provide a voice and a mighty body behind that voice to create change – for ourselves, for our families and communities, for a world we love and hold dear.
Get clear on your importance and the importance of the creative, innovative, artistic work you do. And then take action.
Join myself and others in this endeavor. Participate in whatever way makes sense to you in your life now. Subscribe to the free newsletters. Sign up as an ongoing member to get discounts on services and products you know you will use. Attend a roundtable. Take a class. Ask for referrals to other programs. Volunteer to help at events, to lobby our local/state/national representatives on issues related to our lives, to be part of WAN’s forthcoming Advisory Council.
Taking action, to me, guarantees stability – and guarantees it in a way that I alone cannot provide. I look forward to knowing you and working with you.
Best,
A.
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