The Right Circle

From The Creative Independent, TM Davy on being a painter

The art world is so slow. Painting is so slow. The idea the you’re going to go to a few openings and just take power somehow is ridiculous. It’s pretty easy to fall into these traps of feeling like nobody really gets you and that can throw off your whole relationship to everybody around you and to your work. I think I’m always on guard about that a bit. I’m pretty good about keeping things in the right perspective regarding my own life, but I’ve seen this happen to people I know. I have sometimes tried to reach out to people when it seems like they are being swept up in that feeling. When you get fixated on the idea that, “Oh, New York is not a community,” things can get out of control really easily. It’s easy to fall into circles of negativity. The trick is just finding the right circle, finding people that make you feel supported and inspired. I was thinking about that at my most recent opening. I was looking around the room and realizing that it was a room full of mostly artists, which felt good. I felt lucky.

I’ve long been convinced that entrepreneurship is, at its core, a learning disability: to float a novel business concept long enough for it to take on a life of its own requires uncommon inability to listen to and integrate the opinions of others.

The alternative, Davy points out, is “finding the right circle.” A supportive network that will help you nurture your novelty.

At its best this allows great new things to flourish. At its worst it creates the necessary preconditions for dictatorship.