The Secret to My Art Success

While 2015 was a successful year in my art career, it was 2014 that was most memorable for me. In the first week of January, a Vancouver gallery invited me to participate in a May exhibit; Arabella Magazine asked to feature my work in their special Love of Flowers edition; and Canada Post contacted me to submit two paintings for their 2015 Flower Series stamps. Then in May, the Royal Canadian Mint commissioned me to design a $20 collector’s coin. In June, I was informed I had received both National commissions.

When people ask me the secret to my success, I often find myself giving them the “cocktail party” answer: I worked hard; I got lucky. It seems this is what most people want to hear – that I worked hard, so therefore I deserve the success. But while working hard is part of it, it’s not the whole story.

The true secret to my success is likely not what you expect. It involves pivotal moments in my life – one of which happened on November 28th, 2004 and changed everything for my family and me – but let me start at the beginning. When I was seven, I drew a tree. Not a typical seven-year-old stick figure tree, but rather one that looked like an actual tree, and I got a lot of attention from that drawing. Enough so that from that day forward, I told myself a story: “I am an artist.” In time that story morphed, and by the time I was 8 or 9, it became, “I am going to be a well-known artist one day.”

One of the secrets to my success is that I never doubt the stories I tell myself. My question to you is: what stories do you tell yourself about yourself? From what I gather, the stories most people tell themselves are negative: I’m no good at art. I’m not very lucky. I can’t draw. I don’t sleep well. I have a terrible sense of direction. I get sick a lot. I can’t sing. I always pick the wrong partners, and so on. I will ask you again: what stories do you tell yourself? Being aware of these stories and changing them from negative to positive is a giant step toward success. I have told myself positive stories and believed them, and that is the first and probably most important reason I have experienced success.

When I was fourteen, my mom – who was going through a challenging time in her life – looked at me and asked, “How is it you always get everything you want, Laurie?” Without hesitation, I responded, “Because I never see the obstacles.” My response had an enormous impact on my mom because it was the first time she became aware that she always saw the obstacles. So, my question to you is, “What obstacles do you see in your life?” Not seeing obstacles is the second key to my success.

If you are familiar with Jim Carrey’s 2014 university commencement speech, you will be aware of the idea that we don’t ask the Universe enough for what we want. So, just like Jim Carrey, I say, “Ask the Universe!” What do you want to cultivate in your life, and what is holding you back? It’s never too late to begin this way of thinking, so why not start today? This is the third key to my success. I have never been afraid to ask the Universe for what I want. As outrageous as some of my ideas and wants have been over the years, they have all come true. So, I’m saying, “Ask!”

The fourth key to my success is giving up attachment to how my requests play out in my life. Sometimes life throws challenges, and accepting them as part of the plan is key. This brings us to November 28th, 2004, when life threw me one big challenge. I was a happily married 42-year-old mother of two pre-teens. I hadn’t given up on my dream of being a well-known artist, but I had allowed my busy life to get in the way. Well, the Universe clearly had a different plan for me. Remember, I had asked to be a successful artist but wasn’t putting in the necessary work.

When my children left for school that day, I was their strong, healthy, vibrant mother, but when they returned home that afternoon, I was an unwell, incapable invalid lying in bed – somewhere I would remain for several weeks. I had experienced Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss, losing all hearing and balance on my left side. I was bedridden with severe spinning vertigo and had to be carried to the bathroom. I had also developed loud tinnitus in my ear, which remains with me today. I could only lie still because the vertigo would resume if I moved even an inch. I had no quality of life and didn’t know if I would recover. The doctors couldn’t give me hope because I only had a one in three chance of a full recovery. It would have been more bearable if I had known I would be fine in time, but no one could promise me that.

I reached a low point at about the three-week mark and no longer wanted to live like that. I remember listening to my family downstairs having dinner. I longed to be with them but was too unwell. Deciding a bath might help, I inched my way to the bathroom — every step and movement bringing on vertigo. With tears trailing down my face into the bathwater, I said to myself, I can’t do this anymore. A confident voice startled me with the reply, “There is no need to worry; everything will be okay.” I was so surprised that I sat upright, causing vertigo. I had heard a voice, and it had promised hope.

I chose to believe that voice, whatever its origin. Was it the voice of the Universe, God, Holy Spirit or Love? I have no idea, but it doesn’t matter. What mattered was I believed it. I trusted it. I had hope. I stepped out of the bath, found a scrap of paper and wrote it down: “There is no need to worry. Everything will be okay.” I kept that piece of paper with me for the next eighteen months, which was how long it took until the good days in a week outnumbered the bad. Over time I healed, with my brain accommodating to my new reality. My hearing never returned, but I regained most of my balance. I re-learned how to ride a bike, ski, play piano, read, and paint again. I learned to live again.

One day about six weeks into my recovery, my mother was sitting across the room from me. I had my eyes closed with my head against a pillow. She said, “I’m thinking, Laurie, that maybe this experience could actually be good for you.” Without moving or opening my eyes, I folded in all my fingers except the middle one. She and I still laugh about that, but my mom was right. Here is the valuable lesson I learned from that experience. There is something out there that is greater than us. Nobody knows for sure what it is, but I know we need to learn to connect to it somehow. Lying on my sickbed gave me time, and I connected to It. Once I could read again, I pursued a spiritual path and learned something that has served me well for fifteen years. Every emotion we feel is either love or fear. Doubting yourself, not trusting, seeing the obstacles, worry, regret – these negative emotions are all fear. Believing in yourself, trusting, not seeing the obstacles, acceptance, giving, kindness – these positive emotions are all love. We have free will, and we have a choice, and we need to choose love. Learning to connect, trust and choose love is the fifth secret to my success.

I hadn’t been working toward my goal, so the Universe gave me a nudge, which I had needed at that time. I promised myself from my sickbed that when I recovered, I would return to painting and would take my work into a gallery when I was well enough. I am now represented by three galleries and, to date, have sold several hundred paintings. I have had a successful solo art show, won awards, and through my art, have raised thousands of dollars, which I donate to a different charity each year.

So, the “cocktail party” answer that my success is just hard work and luck isn’t the whole story. The secret to my success is this: I tell myself a positive story, I believe it to the point that I refuse to see the obstacles, I’m not afraid to ask the Universe for what I want, I show up and do the work but give up attachment to how it plays out in my life, I accept the challenges as part of the plan, I make a connection to my Higher Power, and I trust and choose love instead of fear.

Every time I sit down to paint, I read these five quotes written on a chalkboard in my studio:

“Art must be an expression of love or it is nothing.” (Marc Chagall)

“If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.” (Marc Chagall)

“The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.” (Piet Mondrian)

“Painting is a means of self-enlightenment.” (John Olsen)

“Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does, the better.” (André Gide)

I turn it over, I make that connection, and I trust.

I will leave you with the words of Jim Carrey: “You are ready and able to do beautiful things in this world, and after you walk through those doors today (or when you paint or when you simply live your life), you will only ever have two choices, love or fear. Choose love, and don’t ever let fear turn you against your playful heart.”

Happy painting!