The way it looks, every art profession is a mountain and there is a small peak at the top where the best of the best sit — or what we consider at any given time to be the best of the best. We set out on climbing these mountains with our eyes riveted on the very top. It drives us.
This idea applies to so many arts (and non arts). It’s as true on Acting Mountain as it is on Painting Mountain. Advertising Mountain, Chef Mountain, Photography Mountain, Clothing Designer Mountain, Musician Mountain, Filmmaking Mountain, Novelist Mountain, Poetry Mountain… the dynamic is the same: you set your sites on the top, hoist yourself half-way up solely on your talent, curiosity, will and determination, and then realize that the second half of the climb is about different skills than the ones that got you where you are. And then you have to reevaluate your drive.
I’ve climbed four creative mountains, to various degrees of success. Fine Arts was what I got my degree in, but I didn’t last there. I was so young (20) and really had no idea what I was doing. Only part way up the mountain, I headed back down and started over on Commercial Art Mountain. That, somehow, took. In retrospect, I think the reason I grasped Commercial Art more, at that age, is that there was always someone to give me the strategy line and so, as a commercial artist, I was executing on an idea that…
