I don't have the tools

I am realizing more and more that I don't have the tools I need to do all of the things that I want to do. I thought that when I went to school that they would help me to obtain all of the keys I would need to be a success. I was wrong. What I got was a general idea of what I needed to do to succeed, but none of the details, the actual know how to get from where I was to where I wanted to be.

Being an artist I have learned how to draw, and paint, and sculpt, and all other kinds of things that pertain to the act of creation, but none of the tools I would need to actually be an artist. No one taught me how to talk to people about being an artist. No one taught me how to write proposals, or how to find galleries, or shows. I wasn't given any resources to do these things. So when I graduated and didn't really know how to be an artist I drifted.

These skills that I was missing were essential to being an artist. You cant just sit in a room and make art for your own walls, and call yourself an artist. A closet artist is, at least to me, not an artist, at that point you are just a hobbyist.

I want to be an artist. I want to get back into the creative art community. I am finding that it is not as easy as I had originally thought. Especially because of my lack of knowledge. The gaps in my learning are proving to be a handicap that I didn't know I had until recently. Maybe if I had known about this handicap earlier I would have been able to work my way around it by now, and be more successful now that I currently am.

I read all of the blog posts about how to get press, and how to make connections. I understand the theory of what I should be doing, but no one post useful places to start at. Understanding how to do something and actually having the tools to do it are completely different. I know how to make decorate a cake but I lack the tools to actually accomplish what I want to do. I know what I should be doing, but I don't know what sites to use or who I should be talking to to get to that point. I need resources that I just don't have.

I hope that maybe as I struggle through this process of discovery, I can help those that follow find the information they need to have success without having to go through the same road blocks that I do. I hope that I can be more informative than the vague blogs that I have been reading. I don't want anyone to have to go through the same things that I have trying to find their path. One person's success should pave the way for another to find their own. We should be generous with our successes, helping those that follow rather than being selfish with them, and refusing to share our knowledge.