Martin Tucker

A bright-eyed young man approaches a New Yorker on the street and asks, "Pardon me sir, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?" Without hesitation the wise old gentleman says, "Practice…practice…practice." For decades - no make that centuries - creative men and women have been looking for the key to a successful career in the arts. But isn't success a relative term? Do we measure success in terms of money in the bank? How about in the number of paintings, pieces of pottery, photographs, CD's, box office tickets or books sold? Is it the number of resume pages? What about the letters behind your name - MFA, PhD, GED? Do we create to leave a legacy? Or is it enough if a loved one simply loves your work? Better still, if you love your work? Vincent van Gogh sold one painting during his lifetime and that was just a few months before his death. Only seven of Emily Dickinson's poems were published while she was alive. Moments before the actor James Dean's untimely death in an auto accident, he was pulled over for speeding and the officer writing the ticket didn't recognize him. Do all artists crave fame or fortune? Or is the process itself enough to enrich their soul?

The answers to these seemingly simple questions are as varied as the questions themselves. Everyone who works at a task likes the satisfaction of a job well done - and also appreciates some form of compensation for it. Most artists concentrate on the work - not the reward. As a drama student at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in the 1970's, I asked the late actor and director John Houseman what he recommended for a successful career in the theatre. His reply was to, "Read everything you can get your hands on." Not bad advice. The flip side is, I had an agent in New York who swore that if I'd dye my eyelashes brown so they'd show up better on camera, I'd make a fortune (didn't work). Which brings us to the next issue - who to believe? Cutting your hair in the style of your favorite actor or actress probably won't help (they got that look first). Using the same colors or brush strokes as your favorite painter won't get you there. Letting reviews and glowing articles go to your head is a sure way to lose touch with your inner creative self. How about using the same inflections or tones as your favorite singer? Nah, nobody wants to be a clone. The answer lies in nourishing your natural talent and finding your own unique style. Attend plays, gallery openings, artist's studios, concerts and art fairs where ideas are exchanged and creativity flows freely. These will help you network and plug into the arts community. Read (yes, he was right) about the history of your craft. It will give you a proper perspective and understanding of how your art form evolved. Seek out individuals that you can relate to and who have useful information that will improve your technique. Working professionals in your field are a good place to start. Take classes with those artists or study their work. They can only inspire and enlighten you. The Sawtooth School in Winston-Salem and the Greenhill Center in Greensboro both offer a wide variety of classes, and The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is surely the place to go to study for a professional career.

Some of the most talented people I've ever known work at their craft for one reason - they can't not do it. It feeds their soul and spirit. It's in their blood stream and if they step away from it they wither and dry up. They leave a piece of themselves in everything they create. Drawing attention to themselves is not their primary goal. Sharing their interpretation of the world around them is. Forcing us to wonder, question, trust, laugh, love and appreciate is. Creating, so our lives will be enriched in some way, is. They may never find monetary success or the recognition they truly deserve, but those things aren't priorities for them.

So success is very much a relative term. If you seek fame and fortune, there's a method to the madness. If you are simply creating because you enjoy the process and are happy with the work you create then you, too, have succeeded. William Shakespeare said it over 400 years ago, "Hold the mirror up to nature". And he went further -
"This above all:
To thine own self be true…"

Ralph Waldo Emerson summed it up by saying -
"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."