Communication & Relationships

While studying visual art in my undergraduate education I met with one of my professors for an individual critique of a project I created.  I answered my professor’s questions about my work defending my artistic choices.  However, I had trouble explaining my artistic choices in a way that adequately articulated the intentions of my art.  Without being able to communicate the context of my ideas I couldn’t expect my professor to offer me a useful critique.

It was then my professor told me, “to be a great artist one needs to be a great communicator.”  While that sounds a bit broad and potentially ambiguous, I took it to mean that an artist needs to carefully articulate his/her work and artistic thought process as to provide context for others to understand the end result of the work as well as insight into the creator of the art.  Out of this idea I developed my own philosophy:  that just about everything in life can be whittled down to communication and relationships.

As a long-time visual artist and musician I think I had always known that just about everything could be boiled down to their essential parts, equaling communication and relationships, but it was at that moment that I was able to put it all together and articulate it for myself.

I mention this because I think that anyone hoping to have success in their music career, artistic endeavors and/or entrepreneurial adventures needs to understand that communication and relationships are really two of the key ingredients toward such success.

We’re all human, and like it or not to realize your goals, whatever they may be, it is likely that you will, at least at some point, have to interact with other human-beings to help you meet your goals…even if it’s through a computer on a blog.  I mention this because if you can build trust with others that have an interest in the things you do, and you likewise, reciprocate interest in others, you will build trust and possibly a friendship, which makes you want to help each other out because you value the trust you’ve built…and what is the tool that allows you to build that trust?—Communication.