How To Make It As An Artist | Luther Mallory | TEDxStMaryCSSchool

being singled out feels weird because you have everyone's attention and then you have to figure out what you're going to do with it it's the act of suddenly finding yourself separated from everyone else you don't fit in you don't fit in when you're being singled out you should try try here someone catches this ball here let's go here we go here we go and then just get up just get up and then sit down look most people don't want that to happen to them like if I'm in this audience and the guy just throws the ball I'd be like don't throw that ball at me because I hate to be pointed out, I hate it and yet someone pushed me on this stage and said hey Luth there's like There are 800 people you've never met now you should talk to them and I was like okay and then my judgmental brain He said okay, but what if they think your idea is bad and I said okay, then I will face rejection and then?

My critical brain asked me why it would be worth it and I thought, I guess if some people like the idea, then I'll have a chance to connect. The only reason the risk would be worth it is because of the connection and connection. It means to be understood, not just heard but understood. There is a very vague and slightly embarrassing term that

artist

s and musicians use to do it, everyone wants to do it well. I've worked with hundreds of

artist

s over the years and I always ask them all what doing would mean to you and they all always say the same thing connection I want to change someone wants to change the world

make

an impact and no one says never I want to be famous and

make

40 million dollars but that's what it means to make it for most people but most artists don't Don't think that way, most artists want to change people and then 40 million dollars and becoming famous is a great thing that you can have if you're good at how important connection is, but it starts with connection and connecting it.

It requires this risk right here and the more I choose to risk it, the harder you judge me, so check this out, it's not so strange how that changes everything you feel about me, everything is different now the barrier to connection is risking yourself. I had to go through risks to reach the connection. I can't tell you that I want to show you my idea, but you have to promise that you will like it and that's how you do it as a connection as an artist, but the kids don't care. Do that. Little children don't care, they don't fear risk and we were once very little children, so who told us to start fearing risk?

The better question is who has been telling you who you are and who you should be your entire life. When you were a kid, life was about whether you had even a little luck with discovery, exploration, adventure, and recreation. One of the biggest losses in adulthood is the loss of recess. Recess was proof that children are crazy. The children are crazy. Recess was a war. zone recess is what kids do when adults aren't involved this is what they choose these songs skipping talking about Alabama masu sitting on a rock or eating Betty Crocker that's a song written by kids without the help of kids adults that's what they do their thing no They don't fear risk until something inevitably happens that makes them start to fear risk and that's a tragedy when I was in fifth grade.

I was the last kid to start wearing jeans. Well, at the beginning of fourth grade, everyone switched to jeans instead of joggers. maturity at the end of fifth grade I'm still wearing jogging pants and they're not cool anymore and I'm like no, no, no, no, I'm not going to wear jeans, plus mom just bought me some new gray jogging pants that were super killers because I said kick ass in the thigh and then I'm at recess and I'm in line to get in and Jason Pierce is also in line and Jason Pierce looks at my face and looks at my jogging pants and then he laughs in my face and for the first time in my life I heard this voice in my head saying what's going on what's going on and I responded to the voice I said Jason Pierce hates my jogging pants and the voice said while you're wearing jogging pants everyone else is wearing jeans, put on jeans, we won't have this problem, what are you a baby yet?

That's what's happening and I thought it was the first time I'd experienced this voice in my head that was condescending and terrible. me like a bad voice in my head it was the birth of self-awareness it was the awakening of the critic the incessant heartbreaking voice in my head that wanted to judge me so I went in I told the teacher I was sick I pretended to be sick I called mom, she took me to home that day. I pretended to be sick because I was feeling so self-conscious in my jogging pants and then the real tragedy happened the next day.

I wore jeans to school. They're sold out. I'm serious. I chose to wear shoes. It was disgusting, I sold out, I gave up my individuality and as you go through life, more and more people come along to tell you who you are and then you accidentally believe them, like everyone else does, halfway through high school, Someone says, hey, hey, you know? very soon this will all depend on you, very soon you will have to know what you are doing in this world what your purpose is, you know you will have to discover your abilities, it will all depend on you very soon how to make your own grilled cheese sandwiches no you have to buy winter tires at some point something horrible like that and this Ryles the critic raises the critics now the critic is doing well so what are the skills what are we doing what is happening after high school what is happening, have the fortnights been worth it? thought begins to take over the adventure, exploration and discovery until they do and you become a boring, grown-up version of your children's cell because the critic is now in charge of thinking about everything to try to avoid more pain and Jason Pierce was the first person without even knowing it because Jason was my friend, he meant no harm, who is the first guy to tell me who I am and then I believed him without even knowing it?

Oh look, that's really interesting because if I just lost an AO There aren't many people who are going to learn it, but a lot of you will too, a lot of you don't mind being pointed out, most people usually wait until the second or third AO and the billion, I'm going to do an AO, yes, I will. an AO you have to find out if it's going to exist, but most people on the first day oh no, they don't participate, I don't think so, that's how it works there's a there's a goat out there somewhere your punishment for fitting into your punishment for fitting in and risking nothing is your loss of individuality nju your loss of uniqueness your loss of the things that really make you special when you choose to fit in and risk nothing you become a kind of part of the landscape as if no one is going to decide about you at all and that is every artist's nightmare, if you don't love me then at least hate me, just decide and we are all artists when we choose to share and risk rejection for the chance to connect, the chance to make it, whatever that may be. what it means to you.

We're all artists when we do that, if you've never been an artist on stage as a musician, you don't know, but there's a guy and his name is front row guy and he's at every show, every musical show, and he stands up in front. row of arms crossed dead eyes and stares at the artist and he's on every show in the world, whatever show is happening now he's there like the same guy, the same guy because the gods of success have put this guy there to prove to artists and irritate critics. a symbol of all the rejection you're going to face, so when the artist sees this guy, the critic comes in and says, oh, he hates your face in your music and your clothes, this is the most embarrassing thing for us, we should try to win .

This guy is done and that's the mistake, because the way you win over the guy in the front row is you have to understand that you can't control the beliefs, feelings, and thoughts of another human being. The way to beat the guy in the front row is to realize that he's simply part of an audience and his only job is to judge art, so the way to beat the guy in the front row is to simply not compete with him. let him be who he is, but who has been telling you who you are and who you should. be for your whole life because everyone has a Jason Pierce and he always has a guy in the front row people tell you the whole culture of your life People in society say that's not a good dream no, you shouldn't do no, that can't work now, now you take the risk, nothing risks less waiting to sign up like everyone else, but there is someone in this audience who doesn't want to go to university and is afraid to tell their parents and there is someone who wants starting a business and it feels too risky and there's someone who wants to move to Japan or Los Angeles?

There is someone who needs to leave a toxic relationship. There is someone in this audience who wants to tell his friend that he no longer wishes to identify as a man or a woman. There is someone in this audience who is deeply strange and wants to show people how strange they are, but the risk feels too heavy, neither you nor your critic have any control over the thoughts, feelings and beliefs of any of the people or the external factors involved in your path to achieving it, whatever that may be for you. You can't control any of that, so you have the artist's choice to do it.

Choose to share. Choose to be singled out. You choose to risk rejection for the chance to connect. The great irony of being an artist who has identified with the critic and the critic is. The reason is that neither life nor art is about thinking, it is about feeling, this is something we knew when we were children and then we forgot, so the only way to control is to let go, let go of criticism, feel again, remember how it feels. Be free and risk everything for the possibility of a connection and that's how you do it as an artist, thank you.