“If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”

David Bowie

A recent conversation I had with another artist about getting out of your depth got me thinking about this Bowie quote. Of course he was completely right, but what does it mean to get out of your comfort zone? How can I be sure that I am always challenging myself?

There is often a tension when creating something between joy and discomfort. Is a piece born out of an easy, enjoyable process likely to be better or worse than one that came from a struggle? Sometimes things going well can mean that you are staying too much in your comfort zone, and sometimes things just fall in place. Conversely sometimes a piece resists because it is not quite right, and sometimes it is worth persevering through a difficult birth because the result will transcend expectations.

Challenging your technical abilities to keep on improving can be a way to get out of your comfort zone and grow, but there will be attempted works along the way that really should be discarded, even if they felt like a technical triumph at the time!

Being outside of your comfort zone could also have something to do with the ideas you are exploring. Being willing to follow a thought or a feeling to see where it leads you. That can be daunting, because not all emotions or ideas are easy to explore, but it can lead to some highly personal works. Art can be a way of healing, but to get there, you have to expose your wounds, the cracks in your story, and this can feel like a jump into the void. 

A while back I looked back at a body of works I did as a student, years ago, and there was a darkness throughout all the paintings that said a lot more about me in my early twenties than I was aware of saying at the time. The paintings are not great- bad technique, poor grasp of anatomy and perspective and yet I remember being ridiculously proud of them at the time, probably because I had taken that leap and painted them.

Or it can simply be surrendering yourself to the process, and letting go of the barriers you impose on yourself. You can be so invested in the end result of your work that experimentations can go out of the window, you do something a certain way because that it how you have always done it, or you stick to a type of work, a subject matter because that it what you think is expected of you. Often we are the worst are putting up barriers of “can’t” or “shouldn’t” around ourselves, and getting outside of your comfort zone can be as simple as allowing yourself room to try and fail, and get up and try again.

Every artwork should feel like you are wiping the slate clean, like you are putting a part of you at stake, there should be a danger somewhere. Creating art is a journey, with every new work a step in the dark, and sometimes you might get lost, or take a detour for a little while. But what is important is not being stationary, so carry on moving, and you will have new stories to tell, new memories to share, a new journey to take your audience on.

If you don’t touch the floor anymore, you might be drowning but you could also be flying.