We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stan Myers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Stan, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
It has taken the journey of life for me to come to the realization I was called to be an artist and what that really meant. An individual can be talented and make good art, but that does not make them an artist. I know of people like this who struggle with why they do art other than because they are talented. Or they are gifted, but have no passion. For me, it was through the meandering journey of life I finally embraced being an artist because I realized it is more about who you are than what you do. In this realization I found purpose.
Throughout my youth I often played with art and I knew I had talent because I was told so. When at last it came time to consider my future my parents and advisors directed me away from being an artist to a “practical” future. They had good intentions, I trusted them, but I felt uncertain about what was ahead and went through the motions because I was supposed to. Because I could make use of my talents, I chose an education and career in commercial illustration and design and went through the motions. What else could I do. Eventually it was in this journey I discovered my purpose or calling, as I call it, to be an artist.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
When I graduated with my degree my intention was to look for that practical job in design or illustration; however, at that time the economy did not provide many opportunities for a position in those fields. I needed to do something with myself, and I needed the money, so I began to look for anything I could do to get by. I thought naively, maybe I could get a job in a gallery doing sales or something. I recall the day I walked into a gallery and shared with them I was an art major and asked if they could use my help the owner didn’t offer me a job. Instead she asked a question that took me in a direction I had never expected. ”No, we don’t need your help, but what kind of artwork do you do?” Opportunity had pursued me. Within weeks I was exhibiting my work with the gallery and found myself as an awkward youth invited to lunch with influential individuals who appreciated my paintings and had acquired them. So much for practical!
Following those first days opportunities came with other galleries and I gained recognition with exhibitions. I lived a free-spirited life as an artist, but in reality I hadn’t realized what it meant to be an artist. I was doing art, but I was more deliberate about having fun, traveling, playing a game and making money, which I had little of. I wasn’t mature enough to ask sincere life questions.
After several years my journey again took a change in direction. This time in a practical way. I came to a difficult place and I was tired of always being short on money. The very thing my parents were concerned about. Some new friends knew of a connection where I might find a job. The exact kind of job I had prepared for! I even recall the last day I delivered a piece of art to the gallery and metaphorically dusted my hands and said, “Im glad Im done with that! Now I’m going to go to make some money!” And I did. Not lots, but much more than I had. Little did I know.
There were many benefits to my new job. Such as structure to life, and more so, relationships and collaborating on projects. Its hard to spend all day alone as an artist. I recall one of those first days a playful comment was made to me that years later often spoke to me how true they were. I was in a meeting with my department coworkers discussing a project. Someone candidly replied in response to me, “We’re all designers here, Stan, but you. You, on the other hand, are the artist who does design.” We all laughed about this, and it became a joke in the future. Unknowingly to me till later, the comment implied “Who are you and what are you doing with life?
At the end of many years, my journey was unknowingly again about to change coarse. I was now very restless with my job and it wasn’t going well. I should have quit sooner. On a summer day and I was spending my lunch break at a park to get away from the office. As I was reading a polished, dignified woman with her polished, well groomed dog walked up and commented to me about a sculpture standing nearby. I courteously, but detached, replied. Then she asked me a question that got my attention. “What kind of art do you do?” This was the same question I was asked decades previously by the owner of the gallery. The question for me felt more like “Who are you and why aren’t you doing your art?” I replied a bit reservedly, “How do you know Im an artist?” With piercing eyes that knew, she didn’t answer with words. She simply gestured with her hand that implied it was my demeanor or aura that said, “Its who you are.” Its not like I was wearing an artist beret or something. I took the message in this conversation seriously and it weighed on me. It wasn’t long after that meeting I was dismissed from my job.
I had wanted to leave my job for a long time now and I desperately wanted to paint again, but the supposed security held onto me. Now that my job was terminated was anxious about making ends meet. I even looked for positions in my field, but nothing was offered to me, and I was both glad and apprehensive about this. I wrestled within until I came to a place of surrender. This is when a shift came. I embraced that I am destined to be an artist and this is my calling. This is what I am made to do. But this is just the beginning.
What I came to realize is just being an artist is not enough and a good thing is not necessarily the best thing as a substitute. For me, to be an artist means being more deliberate about why you are doing art. The practical job is practical, but it will leave you feeling wanting. When I committed myself to be an artist it created a steadfastness through all the challenges that lay ahead, including what the practical job had provided. Now I recognize that being an artist is who I am as a person. To create art is not a job but a calling or mission.
So, what’s the mission? Mine personally is two fold. First, I see in a different and deeper way than most. The revelation in seeing beauty and goodness in what I experience gives credence to it significance. Its because I have eyes to see with. I see beyond the surface in multiple levels. Abstractly, literally, metaphorically, etc. This may seem strange to most because they have not experienced it. I am acutely aware of this because I see so much more deeply than when I wasn’t doing design. Such as standing at the gas pump enraptured by the autumn light on cloud formations. Everyone else around me is just pumping gas. More than once my wife has seen me impulsively pull off the road to take in what I see that no one else would begin to notice and appreciate. When I wasn’t painting, perhaps I was as in-observant as others, but now I am grateful that I see.
To create a piece of art, in my perspective, is the process of contemplating what captivated me at the moment I discovered it. It’s a heart response. It must be in order to commit hours to processing the experience and directing it into a painting. Its recognizing that this experience is meaningful enough to attempt to capture and convey some semblance of the moment.
The second part of the mission is to seek to awaken people’s hearts to the goodness and beauty of creation around us. To help others to see more deeply. I have discovered there in a sense of transcendence in these experiences and I intend them to come through in my artwork. When someone exclaims its “pretty” I know they really didn’t “see” it. I know of accounts with myself and others where someone is in tears over a piece of art and they don’t know why. Accounts of peace found by individuals, while in the midst of turmoil, as they quieted themselves in front of painting. Its as practical as a businessman who shares with me how much he appreciates a painting of mine because it provides him with peace on a stressful day. This is my calling.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
If you’re considering being a professional artist I hope you might benefit from my story, I would also suggest wholeheartedly embracing training. You can casually go through your education and regret not being properly equipped in the future. Looking back I wished I had seen education as an opportunity to learn technical skills in multiple disciplines of art rather than just getting through it. Some educational institutions emphasize this and others don’t. I found a more classical approach to training will better prepare you for where you’re going in the future.
Don’t fall into the trap of working for money. You become a slave to it. You won’t work from your heart but for need or comfort. There’s no soul in it. Every gallery I have been with has said to paint from your heart because the clientele can tell when you’re insincere and painting for money.
Similar to the trap of money, don’t cave into the high-art culture. You become their pawn and they don’t care about you. They only want you to follow and praise them. It will lead to a false identity. They advocate doing art from your head. You need to search your heart for what really matters to you personally, not what’s culturally expected. Be true to yourself and let your art come from there.
To be a successful artist requires being a good business person. Its not so much about making money as it’s about stewarding your gift. You do your art from your heart but you still expect to get paid for it. There’s much you can do for managing and marketing your business. A mentor I follow, who has owned a marketing firm and is a successful artist, recommends half of your time should be used for business and half for marketing. There are sources available for developing this.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
One of the greatest challenges I find as an artist is how to encourage others to see. Western society at large doesn’t know how to see. It’s impatient, over stimulated, and unwilling to see. Our western society is directed and encouraged to look at life rationally and factually—a limited “left brain” perspective. Even much of art has become cerebral and not intuitive and of the heart. Thinking has become analytical, functional and methodical. So many have no idea what the purpose of art is other than as decoration. This makes me sad.
Art provides a pathway for others to experience a more balanced view on life with a “right brain” perspective. There’s another reality that one might experience. I believe if individuals were more available and aware of how to see (perceive) intuitively, their life experience would be greatly enhanced. My challenge is how to encourage and inform others of what art has to offer that they may benefit by it. (There are numerous books available on this subject, if interested.)
Contact Info:
- Website: stasn.myers.studio.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/stan.myers.studio
- Facebook: Stan Myers Studio
Image Credits
© Stan Myers Studio
