If you are an artist who wants to burnout quickly, this article is for you. I will make sure to share with you the steps that will lead you to burnout easily, so you only have to follow that to a T.
1- Keep thinking that you need to be creating all the time and in large quantities
As an artist, consistency matters. All you need to do for a successful art career is to create reasonable amounts of art (as little as 10 minutes of creative practice on a consistent schedule). However, if you want to become a quick artist to burnout, you need to believe that rest is bad for creativity and that you need to go on a creative marathon and exhaust yourself to be a worthy enough artist.
2- Create goals outside of your control
Wanting a large audience, a Nobel prize, a contract with a famous brand, etc. Not to gaslight your dreams, because those are legit goals and dreams, but only if you cut them down to doable tasks that match your energy and what you create. You can start sharing your art online and not stress about how bad or unworthy you are. You will eventually have a large audience. Maybe you can start painting more on fabric and focus on fashion art if your goal is to have a deal with a famous fashion brand, and so on.
3- Procrastinating and convincing yourself with the opposite
For more about creative procrastination, read this article.
Creating art is much less exhausting than spending mental energy on procrastinating and coming up with excuses to keep pushing work. Constant internal wars will lead you to burn out faster than anything else.
4- Leaving unfinished art projects
The last time I finished an actual painting was in January 2022. The magical thrill of finishing a painting has been stolen from me. How that happened is a totally different topic, and I am not yet ready to go through it. But never finishing your art projects is assured to exhaust the hell out of you and eat every bit of your passion. You will have so many open tabs in your mind using your mental energy, and you will be the only one knowing about the war with the vulnerability of completion.
5- Only create when there’s a reason to do so
You don’t need permission to create. You don’t need an audience, passion, unique, unprecedented ideas, a specific niche, or a specific style. Believe that you can create just because you want to and because you feel like it at the moment. You owe it to no one to treat your creative practice like a corporate job and prioritize productivity over the joy of creativity.
6- Living different lives at once
Having a job, raising kids, trying to workout religiously, establishing a great social life, being present for your friends when they need you, being a good student, being an artist, and creating consistently are definitely too much and will lead you to experience artist burnout. I do not have a solution for this. There is no magical recipe to prioritize all aspects of our lives all the time. Sometimes, we will have to let a thing or two slide.
Conclusion
There are so many more mental and physical events that may lead you to burn out that you cannot control. Feeling like you’re creating and putting in the effort that goes unseen is terrible, and my only answer is that you need to trust me and believe that there’s magic waiting for you at the end of the tunnel.
