As our 2024 Emerging Artist Grant Cycle comes to a close [July 21 was the last day you could experience our group exhibit], I want to highlight and celebrate one of the greatest gifts an artist can receive: mentorship – the time, energy, focus, and openness a mentor generously offers.
[This post was originally published online in the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast Magazine as part of the Emerging Artist Grant Artist Stories assignment: Artist Mentors – The Greatest, Immeasurable Gift]
I am indeed immeasurably grateful to the artist mentor I was matched with for this grant cycle: Victoria Jorgensen. Her presence in my artistic and personal life has made a bigger difference than I could have imagined in the beginning.
There are many places and ways where an artist can learn their craft, e.g. art schools and trade schools (or film school as I did), apprenticeships, workshops, and of course through online videos and other digital guides. And thanks to non-profit arts organization, most cities offer programs where creatives can learn about the business side with resources and seminars about copyright, marketing, and artist business plans. In St. Pete, for example we have the St. Pete Arts Alliance Artist Business Academy.
But being an artist isn’t just learning and practicing technical skills or embracing the business-side of things. It’s not even just about creating, sharing, selling, and hopefully having a positive impact in the process.
Being an artist is about… BEING an artist. And this can mean many different things to different people – and part of it is finding out what being an artist means to you.
You’ll need to find a way how you can integrate and honor your undeniable need to create (and probably the need to share your creations) in balance with a healthy, sustainable life. Maybe you’ll need some sense of direction artistically and for your life trajectory. And probably you’ll also need a way to protect your sensitive artist soul. Finally, it’s helpful to have a sense of community – even if it’s not where you live, but through time and space – so you can reaffirm that being an artist is not crazy but something that you and others are and do, against many odds including doubt.
To find all of this, there’s nobody quite like an artist mentor – someone who doesn’t necessarily tell you what to do, but presents themselves as a probably older, more experienced maker in their field.
A few thoughts about how an artist can benefit from having a mentor:
- Their presence, attention and support itself can be uplifting.
- Discourse with them can be eye-opening and inspiring.
- Bouncing your ideas off your mentor, not just about the work but about being in the work and in the world, can be what shapes your own vision and direction. If they challenge you a little, even better.
- Hopefully, they’ll share with you information and culture (books, exhibits, films, etc.) that broadens your horizon.
- And if they’re also willing to introduce you to some of their own peers, which helps expand your own network and allows you to level up, your life has truly changed.
Victoria Jorgensen
Filmmaker, writer, multi-disciplinary artist and all-around awesome woman Victoria Jorgensen provided all that for me over the last few months. And I’m forever grateful! Victoria went above and beyond – and I’m rather certain I would not have created “Public Walls and In-Between Spaces” the way I did if it wasn’t for her presence in my life, her support, and being the inspirational, imaginative, caring, daring artist that she is. If she sees this in herself or not, in her I saw what I needed to adopt most: creating without worrying about how people would judge it (including my self-judgment). Having Victoria as an artist mentor was a pivotal encouraging and uplifting a liberating experience in my trajectory as an artist.
And one more time: THANK YOU, VICTORIA! If I’m ever asked to be a mentor again, you’ll be my shining example.
I would also like to give a nod and a thank you to mentors who have come before her to help shape me and my creative work.
Günter Westphal
This might be obvious, but it wasn’t until I was in my late 20s living in Brooklyn and having long calls with my father, back in Germany, that I began to realize that he was more than the dad who showed me how to use a dark room. He was and continues to be my mentor. Recent blog post about Günter Westphal: A Reflection of Papi + a recent German newspaper article translated to English: Artist on Aesthetics as Empowerment: “Meeting at Eye-Level”
Richard Portman
Surely, I’m just one of many dozens who considered this BAFTA and Academy Award winning audio engineer their mentor and maybe even spiritual guide. While he officially taught us sound design in film school, he taught us more about life – from Hollywood to Florida and from excess to enlightenment. More about Richard Portman.
Andy Ruben
Our film directing professor during my second year gave me the incredible opportunity to be 2nd unit director of his feature film about high school vampires. In the end, it didn’t get released and we lived on other ends of the world and lost touch. More about Andy Ruben.
Maureen A. Nolan
My first official mentor when I was one of 10 screenwriters selected by the AIVF to attend Maureen’s screenwriting mentorship program. While I’m grateful for what I’ve learned from and through her, the biggest gift that came out of that program are the lifelong friendships that grew out of that group. More about Maureen A. Nolan.
A huge THANK YOU to all of you who have helped shape my creative life path – including those I have not mentioned here.
And thank you to Creative Pinellas for providing us with the mentorship opportunity. I know that for now the mentorship program will not exist in the same way, but I hope something like it will exist again. The benefits are immeasurable.