Success is such an ambiguous word; it connotes different meanings for everyone. My personal interpretation of success is surprisingly difficult to articulate.
Would I consider myself successful if I was showing my work at a handful of galleries? Yes. Would I consider myself successful if I was a wife and mother and painted in my spare time to fulfill my innate hunger and desire to create? Yes.
I refuse to allow my own success to be defined by anyone else, and I refuse to be motivated to meet the expectations of what the art world or my peers define as “successful.” I refuse to allow myself to drown in the opinions of others and lose my own voice in the process. I refuse to allow anything to interfere with what God’s definition for success is for me as an artist, woman, daughter, friend, and hopefully, as a wife and mother. I refuse to be consumed by the idea of success to a degree that I am distracted by – or become fearful of – creating.
The photo above was taken in Mexico City at the home of Frida Kahlo. I love this quote for many reasons, but particularly because it encompasses Kahlo’s approach to life; her questioning of the established interpretation of success as a human, as a woman, and as an artist. Kahlo spent a great deal of her life in pain, often bedridden, yet still managed to create beautiful and expressive work on her own terms.
I adore this quote because it reminds me so much of my brother. Over the course of 22 years as his baby sister, I have witnessed my brother reinvent and redefine success despite the significant challenges in his life.