Snapshot from My Studio: August 13, 2019 at 10:26AM

In my 2 weeks away, I went to 2 conferences: first the International Forum of Visual Practitioners, where I was surrounded by graphic recorders of such amazing skill and talent that my gremlins went into overdrive, trying to convince me I should quit on the spot. “Who are you trying to fool?” “You can’t take visual notes to save your life!” “You’re nowhere near as good as they are, and you never will be—why don’t you just spare yourself the humiliation?”
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Etc. ad nauseum!
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5 days later I was at the Applied Improvisation Network world conference in NY, taking sketchnotes in my private notebook (like this page spread, from a pre-conference workshop, or “Learning Journey,” at the Jazz Loft in Stony Brook). 🖍
That’s right: even though my gremlins tried their darnedest to convince me to STOP, because I don’t live up to my heroes’ level, I didn’t take direction from my gremlins! I kept right on going.
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And here’s the really interesting part: when I shared pics of my sketchnotes in the Facebook group for the AIN conference, people went NUTS over them! They didn’t tell me where they could improve—they told me how much they LOVED them!
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So I went from the first conference, where (thanks to the Comparison Trap) I felt like a total loser, to the second conference, where people raved about how amazing my sketchnotes are!
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Talk about a paradigm shift!
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My skills did not change in the 5 days in between. The only change is the perception of the people viewing them. 🖍
To paraphrase a calligraphy teacher of mine, Peter Thornton, “Other people see your work for what it IS. You see your work for what it ISN’T.”
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When I compare my work with my heroes’, all I can see is how mine doesn’t measure up. But when I share my work with “non-experts,” they see all the things they think is cool about it! And if let myself be open to it, that helps me see those things, too. 😊
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Can you allow yourself to see your work for what it IS, instead of what it ISN’T? What is LIKABLE and COOL and INTERESTING and VALUABLE about your work, instead of focusing on where it doesn’t measure up to your hoped-for ideal? How might that change your relationship to your art?
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