We recently connected with Yeshe Jackson and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Yeshe, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
I developed self esteem by changing the way I talked to myself in my head. When I was younger and something went wrong, I used to really beat myself up inside, using language in my thoughts like “That didn’t work out because you are a loser,” or “You’ll never be good at this,” other similar phrases. That just made things worse, of course.
So I started telling myself that it wasn’t always my fault. Sometimes things just don’t work out. It doesn’t mean you’re a loser. Life is full of failures, and even successful people fail plenty of the time.
It felt silly at first, and even fake, to tell myself that. I was so used to blaming myself for everything and feeling hopeless. But gradually the repetition of these altered responses changed the way I felt about myself inside. It took a couple of years to turn it around completely, but the person I am today and the confidence I have are a direct result of taking that inward journey and sticking with it.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I have become absolutely enamored with painting seascapes, especially of the central California coast, which I am fortunate enough to call my home. I love to explore the way that light plays off of the water, sometimes bouncing off the surface and sometimes penetrating through the waves. I am interested in the various patterns that waves create, and how they interact with the coastal landscape. But most of all, I have been really studying the way that the light plays on the wet sand as the waves recede. I have painted hundreds of what I call the Wet Sand Series, in which this particular element is the focal point.
I have developed a style of painting that I call Poetic Realism. This style differs from photorealism in that my end goal is not to recreate a reference photo exactly, but instead to recreate the actual feeling of being in a particular place at a particular time. As I paint I use my memory of the scene, along with my imagination and my artistic sensibilities, to create something a lot more emotional than basic realism. I am deeply moved by my experiences in nature, and my paintings are a reflection of that.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The first one would have to be persistence. I don’t think you can get good at anything without that. Doing anything for the first time feels awkward, and can be downright frustrating. So I think that many people give up quickly and say “I must not be good at that,” or “I’m just not talented.” But I believe that what most people perceive as talent is really just tenacity. If you really want to be good at something, you have to stick with it. You can’t give up when it gets difficult, but instead you must double down on your efforts. That’s how you eventually make progress.
The second one for me would be patience. It goes hand in hand with persistence, of course. You have to be willing to spend years developing your skills if you want to create something that stands out. These days too many people are used to instant gratification… you order a package and it arrives the next day, or you download a three hour movie to your computer in ten seconds. It makes people feel like everything should happen quickly. But that’s not how art works. And that’s a good thing, because the long journey is what gives your art character. I’m not saying you can’t make something beautiful or even brilliant early on in your art career, but a seasoned artist will always be more consistent in the high quality of their work. You have to be willing to put in the time to get there. And when you do, you’ll realize that if it weren’t difficult, and it didn’t take a lifetime, it wouldn’t be special. And that’s what art is, special!
The third quality that I think is super important for any professional artist is to become very comfortable with rejection. I know that sounds harsh, but if you are going to put your art out in the world, especially if you are trying to sell it, rejection will be a huge part of your experience. Sales of any kind involves a high level of rejection. The top sellers in any market let rejection roll off of them like water off a duck’s back and carry on with a smile on their face. Most people you meet are either not interested in your particular type of art, or don’t have the money for it, or the timing is not right for them to purchase any new art at the moment. That’s just the way it is, and you have to get comfortable with it and not get downhearted. If I do an art festival and there are 10,000 people there, I only expect to sell about 10 paintings that weekend. That means that 9,990 people were not interested in my art, but believe it or not I call that a great success! That’s 99.9% rejection, but I’m walking away from that festival with thousands of dollars in sales from the 0.1% that were interested and ready to buy.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
When I quit my job as a carpenter and was starting out selling my art, I would often get near the end of the month and not have enough money for rent. My mind would start to race, and I would start to question everything I was doing. I would lay awake at night, wondering if I should pick up the phone the next day and try to get my construction job back. The feeling was like I was falling down a well or sinking into quicksand. But every time I found myself feeling that way, the escape was to paint. I would spend what little I had in my pocket on some fresh canvases, and focus on making the very best art that I could. My mind would become quiet and calm, and in my creative zone I would feel like everything was just fine. I seemed to always sell a couple of paintings at the last minute, just before my rent was due. These days when I feel overwhelmed, which can easily happen when I’m wearing 10 different hats and juggling all of the tasks that I have to in building a career as an artist, I go back to the basics. I just paint.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://yeshejacksonfineart.com
- Instagram: @yeshejackson
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/yeshepaints
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