Pander, Seth Godin and Quirky Passionate Art

Voyage
encaustic and paper 18 x 24

Do you pander?  Do you indulge your audience and create for them rather than for yourself?  Do you stay true to yourself and your creative voice?  I'm defining pandering as using your perception of your customer's wishes as an excuse to do work you're not proud of.   I think this is a trap that many artists, bloggers, and creatives fall in to.  In my creative life before painting, I know that I fell in - big time.  I know I fell in when I was a small business owner too.  It can actually be a bit hard to avoid, especially if you have a taste of success.  Its easy to be average and to produce for what you think people will like rather than stay true and authentic.  I'm borrowing Seth Godin's words here - I get his blog posts in my email.  Sometimes I don't bother to read them and sometimes I do.  But this one... for some reason really struck a cord with me.  Its a little body check, just to make sure that THIS time - I stay true to quirky heart filled art.

The reason you don't have to pander is that you're not in a hurry and you don't need everyone to embrace you and your work. When you focus on the weird, passionate, interesting segment of the audience, you can do extraordinary work for a few (and watch it spread) instead of starting from a place of average.
Go ahead and make something for the elites. Not the elites of class or wealth, but the elites of curiosity, passion and taste. Every great thing ever created was created by and for this group.                                                •••  Read the entire blog post HERE