I’ve decided to stop being modest.

When someone pays me a compliment about my paintings, I’m going to take it — and run like hell.

In other words, I’m going to say “thank you” — and I’m going to believe what that person says.

Bashfulness be damned

There’s no point in being bashful. Being bashful will neither help you — nor I — make great paintings.

I am convinced of this: To achieve anything great, you must first believe that you can achieve something great.

To put this into practice: I want to make world-class art. Therefore, I must say to myself, “I can make world-class art.” Or, I can say this: “I make world class art.”

(Typing that last sentence felt pretty good.)

SuperAcid Autobacs Ambilify: It's 12:51am, and I've been working on this painting for the past five hours, and I'm ready for sleep. This painting is one of the weirdest paintings I've ever made; it took me four weeks to make; it looks nothing like I originally envisioned it; I trashed two previous versions. But that's another story for another time. Fact is, I didn't quit.

Making “okay” art is not okay

I am also convinced that the greatest artists do no think their is art is just “okay.”

The greatest art critics? Completely full of themselves.

But you know, to do something great, you’ve got to be able to say, “I do great work. Nothing will get between me and my work.”

What did Muhammad Ali say about himself? “I am the greatest.” And he believed it.

As an artist, you should be able to say the same about yourself. It’s not like there’s a Heavyweight Championship of Art, anyway. No one’s keeping score. (Except ourselves, of course.)

Tags: art psychology

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