Action Antidote

August 6, 2025

There’s a quiet, dangerous myth that floats around the art world, a seductive whisper that tells us we must wait for the perfect moment, the perfect idea, the perfect spark. That somehow, inspiration or skill or success will arrive like a divine gift, unearned but deeply desired. But here's the truth that burns away all that fog: the antidote to every struggle you face in your art career is action. Not thought. Not hope. Not endless planning. Action.

If you're wrestling with your technique, spinning in circles around the same flaws, the solution isn’t more books or YouTube videos or theory, it’s your hands on the canvas, your body at the wheel, your mind immersed in the practice. Skill is forged in repetition, not contemplation. You learn to draw by drawing. You learn to sculpt by sculpting. The mistake too many artists make is waiting until they feel "ready." But readiness comes through the doing, not before it.

If your work isn’t selling, if it’s sitting unseen in a studio or clogging up your hard drive, the problem isn’t your talent. It's visibility. Art can’t sell itself from the shadows. You need to show up, again and again, putting your work in front of eyes, even when it feels vulnerable. Post online. Apply to shows. Reach out to galleries. Talk to collectors. Make the uncomfortable leap into the marketplace. Waiting to be discovered is a fantasy. Building a bridge to your audience, that’s reality. That’s action.

And if you're staring at a blank canvas, brush in hand, and nothing is coming? If you feel blocked or uninspired? Start anyway. Scribble. Doodle. Make bad work. Make anything. Inspiration is not the gatekeeper of creativity, it is its byproduct. The muse shows up after you do. The spark doesn’t descend from above; it emerges in motion, in momentum, in messy beginnings that gather clarity with every step forward.

Whatever the challenge, whatever the frustration, lack of progress, lack of motivation, lack of opportunity, none of it is solved by waiting. None of it is healed by stillness. The only thing that guarantees stagnation is doing nothing, or worse, doing the same thing that hasn’t worked a hundred times before. Familiar patterns feel safe, but they rarely create breakthroughs.

Progress is brought about by change. And change only comes when you do something different, when you act.

So act. Even when it feels small. Even when it feels foolish. Even when it feels like it’s not working. Every brushstroke, every email, every post, every hour at the easel is a step toward something greater. There is no secret formula, no shortcut, no magic moment.

There is only the work.

And in the work, everything begins to change.