Hello friends! This is my first blog post in connection with my first YouTube video (which you can watch here) !
At the beginning of this year, I was faced with two options. One was to continue full-time university study and change my major for the fifth time! Or two open my own studio and pursue art full-time. I decided to choose the later. Life is short, you only live once, and I am a firm believer in saying live life by you own terms and no-one else’s.
Five Telegraph road Kingscote, Kangaroo Island is the location of my new adventure. The 30min drive to town is taking a toll on the petrol tank and my savings (welp), but the 7 feet square room has a charming personality with north facing windows that allow in a steady stream of sunlight, creating the perfect space for inspiration.
I named the studio, Bloom by the Ocean, as way to encapsulate my aspiration to flourish artistically and individually whilst surrounded by the ocean. In the beginning I fitted in gallery lights, new carpet, furnished the studio with desks and tables and I also reached out to a few local artists if they were interested to exhibit their art in my gallery.
The studio is a growing space, there is still so much I would like to change and create. For example, I am still reorganizing all my stock and materials that have been in boxes behind my desk!
I get many remarks asking, ‘How was I bold enough to open my own space going against the norm and expectation of attending university.’ I want to look back on my life and be proud of a person who took risks regardless of the initial outcome. You are never going to know what will happen unless you take the risk.
When first taking the risk don’t worry about the outcome; whether the action will be a success or failure. If you don’t take the risk initially, you’re failing yourself.
If you have the desire to dream big and achieve your dreams; take the risk and don’t look back. Don’t stop yourself because you fear failure or prevent yourself from taking the risk because you don’t think you will be successful. Let me tell you right now, if you think you’re going to successful initially you’ve already failed. The term success itself is relative to the individual, making the entire concept irrelevant (in my opinion). It is completely acceptable for it not to work the first, the second or the third time. The point is after you take the risk don’t give up. Don’t give up even if it takes you years.
Taking steps outside your comfort can be very rewarding, but today I see less, and less people do so. In the art community stepping outside you comfort zone, experimenting with new media and style is looked down upon and traded with the urgent hurry of discovering your art style and making a consistent body of work to be follower worthy. The movement neglects the ongoing importance of stepping outside your comfort zone to discover new things about yourself and to grow individually.
It is extremely daunting to commit yourself to something that you’re not good at but once you do everything you feared is longer as stressful. Stepping outside your comfort also is not always positive. Holy heck! Most of the time you learn about what you hate and don’t want to do but being comfortable with that is very powerful.
So, I urge you to take the risk, step outside your comfort zone in weeks, months, years from now your future self will thank you.
Chantal xx