58 – 5-Minute Mentoring: How Do I Find My Artistic Focus?

In this episode, I answer a pair of question from both Irene and Mary on, How to narrow down and find my unique artistic focus.

I’ll be answering a new question every Friday so if you have a question you'd like me to answer on an upcoming episode, I need to hear from you.  

Click Here and you can Record your message below and who knows, we just might feature it on an upcoming episode!

If this Podcast is a blessing to you, I need your help.

First of all subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or Google Play. This way you’ll never miss an episode.

Secondly, take a few minutes and leave a review for an episode or the entire series. This will help us get the word out others about this series.

Connect with Matt online at www.MattTommeyMentoring.com or on Instagram and Facebook @thethrivingchristianartist

Get encouraged and connect with other artists on the Thriving Christian Artist Facebook Page  https://www.facebook.com/thethrivingchristianartist/

Fuel Your Creative Calling with Weekly Encouragement
Join thousands of Christian artists who are growing in faith, creativity, and purpose.

Subscribe to The Thriving Christian Artist Weekly and receive powerful, faith-filled content every week—designed to encourage your heart, spark your creativity, and equip you to walk boldly in your God-given calling as an artist.

👉 Click here. It’s free. It’s faith-filled. And it’s just for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hey, are you one of those artists that likes to do a ton of different things and you're always wondering, how do I focus on one thing? How do I really develop mastery and get out there in the marketplace so that I can start thriving? Well, a lot of us deal with that. I'm going to be answering that question right here on 5-Minute Mentoring, so stay with me. God created you to be. Well, hey there. I'm so glad you're with me on 5-Minute Mentoring today. Listen, I get this question. I get it all the time inside of the mentoring program or in Thriving Christian Artists or at conferences. People come up to me. They're like, Matt, I love to do so many different things. You know, and one of the big things I teach about in the mentoring program and, you know, my books and all that is the power of focus, because when you focus, you can begin to develop mastery. And a lot of people struggle with this. Well, I saw it come up again the other day. I was reading a couple of questions, actually, from our live Q&A day inside the mentoring program from Irene and from Mary. Irene, her question said this. She said, if you're active in a number of different artistic areas like yourself. She was talking to me. How do you decide which one is meant to flow more or be developed in this current season? Right now, I just want to keep growing in all of them. And then Mary said in the same day, she said, hey, Matt, I got a real problem discerning where to focus my energies because I'm pulled between doing too many different art forms. Currently with yarn, I'm getting ready to start painting acrylics again. And then I like making jewelry and skull Thank you. I totally get it. I'm one of those people that's, I think they call them a polymath. I like to do a lot of different things. But as you're developing yourself as an artist in the marketplace and one that wants to really mature in what you're doing, it's so, so, so important to start focusing because otherwise you really are presenting a very kind of mismatched, if you will, sort of vision of who you are and what you do to the marketplace And one of the big things that I always tell people is that the confused mind never buys. If people don't know who you are as an artist, what you stand for, what you love to do, if they don't see you developing mastery and developing a body of work over time, it's really, really difficult for them to get excited about what you do and become a real raving fan. That is, you know, ones that not only buy your work, but also tell other people about your work as well. When I hear stories like this from artists, and again, it's very common if you're out there today struggling with this, what it primarily says to me is that you're not creating enough art. Now, what do you mean? Well, what I mean is that this is a typical problem that most artists who are hobbyists are dealing with. They've kind of always done their art just as a fun thing, and they've never really gotten ready to take it to the next level. And when you take it to the next level, a number of things are happening. Number one, you want to begin to develop mastery. in the techniques and in the artistic expression. So, you know, you've got to spend more time on it. You've got to spend more focus on it, more resources, lessons, creating work. You know, all of that's got to go into really developing mastery in what you're doing. And if you're doing a ton of different things, you never really have enough time to develop mastery. And so if you're an artist and you're just like, you know what? I don't care. I'm just loving creating. I love the creative process. If I never develop, quote-unquote, mastery at any one of these, I'm still having a good time. Jesus loves me. He's using me where I am. Then you know what? That's awesome. And stay there. Because there's nothing that says to be... to be a real artist, you know, quote unquote. You have to choose one art medium and you have to sell your work and be a full-time artist. Nobody's saying that, all right? However, though, if you feel like the Lord is calling you and drawing you into the marketplace and into being a full-time artist, then realize mastery and focus is a part of that process. Because one of the things that I've learned over the years to really... develop maturity as an artist and develop a mature creative voice, you can't just be filled with the Holy Spirit and passion and vision and all that. You've also got to be skilled in every manner of workmanship. That's right out of God's Word, Exodus 31, where it talks about Bezalel. And so I find that as you press in to the movement of the Spirit in your life and that will draw you into developing your skills. Because why? Because it enlarges your capacity to flow with the Holy Spirit. See, when you're just kind of messing around with what you do creatively, and you're just kind of doing it as a hobby and whatever, you're not really concerned about that. You know, you just kind of do it as it comes to you. You do it with the skills you have, and that's awesome. You're just kind of in it for the experience. But when you really start to get serious, and not in a downer kind of way, but when you really get serious about wanting to do your work for the glory of God, allowing it to be used by the Holy Spirit, allowing it to really speak and mature and grow over time, you realize that you need more people. tools in your toolbox. And the way that you get more tools in your toolbox is number one, creating more work. Number two, increasing your skills. Number three, allowing others to give feedback in that process and just continuing to develop that voice. I teach a lot on this in the mentoring program. In fact, we've got a couple of modules that are all about, you know, developing your unique artistic voice. But again, focus and mastery is a huge part of maturity. And so again, is it required? No, but it's required if you're wanting to develop yourself as a mature artist. It absolutely is because otherwise you just kind of bounce around from thing to thing. Now, Let me say one other thing about this. I've found over the years, for me, as sort of a polymath artistic person, I've found that in different seasons of my life, I focus on different creative mediums. For example, I did my baskets as a hobby for probably 15 years before I ever started making a living with it. Before that, in the hobby season of my baskets, I was a full-time musician. songwriter, you know, worship pastor, worship leader, that sort of thing. When I got out of that, but before I started doing my baskets, I was working in graphic design and art direction, and I had, you know, a marketing company. And then right now, I work a lot as a writer and as a speaker and an artist and all those things kind of coming together. So all of those have had, you know, different... amounts of energy and amounts of focus put on them at different seasons of my life. And so again, I think it's really important, whatever you're doing, to make sure that you're doing what God's calling you to do in the season that you're in. And realizing that as you focus on the thing that God has for you in this season, that's where the momentum and that's where the growth is going to be. All right. We all struggle with it. It's normal. But just realize as you press into the Lord and realize what season you're in and where you want to go, he'll begin to raise your awareness, raise your desire, raise your focus toward what it is that you're supposed to be focused on artistically so that you can really grow in that great great question Irene and Mary and I know a lot of you are out there probably going I struggle with this too so hopefully that's going to be an encouragement for you today all right hey listen if you would if you're loving the podcast if you're loving these five minute mentoring little short teachings please subscribe to the podcast via iTunes also review it and let other folks know that you're loving the podcast and that it might be a blessing in their life as well all right and Until next time, join me again on Tuesday for the Thriving Christian Artist podcast and every Friday for five-minute mentoring. I hope it's a big blessing in your life.