We recently connected with Pavel Sokov and have shared our conversation below.
Pavel, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
Confidence and self esteem , for me at least, is a function of trust that I have with myself. This trust is developed by living up to my own promises and standards over a long period of time. When you pose yourself artistic and professional challenges, you make a commitment to do the actions you have to do in order to accomplish those goals. If you see yourself procrastinating, not putting in a genuine effort, you will lose trust with yourself. However, if you end up sticking with the behaviors you committed to, no matter the actual outcome, you will develop trust with yourself which is the basis of self esteem.
By acting on firmly held principles, and always showing up to do the work, the right and hard way, I know that I can guarantee my best effort in my art. This is often distinct from results of your behaviors. Sometimes correct behavior does not produce a positive result. It is important to not base your self esteem on any false signals like that. Similarly don’t build self esteem from a lucky break either. Just live up to your own standards and principles, and don’t think about the world’s reactions to them.
“The best way to get what you want is to deserve it” – The late Charlie Munger
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My art practice consists of two main pillars. I am known for my portrait painting commissions in which I paint contemporary families of entrepreneurs as well as painting for the royal families of the Arabic gulf. I am particularly known for painting the historical figures and founders of countries for my royal family clients in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, etc. In this way, I bring their histories to life in full color and detail while working from old photographs and historical information.
My second pillar is my own studio work in which I travel around the world to paint the traditional cultures I encounter and immerse myself in. I absolutely love the variety of textures, tastes, stories and beliefs that people have across the globe and want to preserve their traditions and way of life via painting. This includes paintings of India, Ethiopia, Morocco, Japan, Europe, etc.
I am particularly focused right now on immersing myself in the cultures of the Ethiopian tribes found in the Omo Valley. I have spent much time living with them and painting them and their way of life as well as collecting artifacts. It is meaningful to me to share their stories with everyone.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think having a massive sense of urgency helped me both get better faster as well as get financial results from doing so. People always say “don’t put the cart in front of the horse”, but I always found value in doing exactly that. Putting myself in challenging professional situations that are slightly above my experience level early on, allowed me to live up to those standards quick in order to complete my commitments to clients. This created a fairly quick rise in skill and professional results, which allows me to live a comfortable life now and have no fears. I know for a fact that I can rise to any artistic occasion. So in short my advice is to go fast, and make it as stressful as possible. Things will be much easier later.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
For me the obstacle I am facing is that I am extremely curious and interested in painting subject matter that is not very popular to the main stream audience. There are ways of appealing to masses that my principles don’t allow me to do, although I am well aware of them. I paint for me and not for the audience, which results in me painting things like African tribesmen, Korean fish markets, Geishas, random mountain ranges of the United Arab Emirates, which are all things that are unrelatable to a mass audience. Marketing is about appealing and relating to most people, but I don’t relate to most people and don’t want to. To truly make art you have to consider only your own interests, and not that of the audience. If people are not relating to your subject matter, there is a sacrifice involved with that, but I feel that I have an artistic obligations to carry on painting what I care about regardless in the best way I can. Hopefully, if the work is done well enough, it can encourage people to care about the subject matter you are excited about.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pavelsokov.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/pavelsokov/
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/pavelsokov
