Shut Up and Paint
"If you are silent about your pain, they will kill you and say you enjoyed it."
— Zora Neale Hurston
If you are an artist, you have likely experienced some level of devaluation of the time, labor, and skill required to execute your work. It may have been unprompted or disguised as flattery or constructive criticism.
Pursuing art professionally comes with exhilarating highs and, at times, devastating lows. As an emerging artist, I am learning to regulate my emotions so that I am not as deeply affected by the external forces that cause those extremes. Many of those lows stem from society’s ingrained devaluation of art and artists. As a Black woman who has spent most of my adult life pursuing art professionally, I have experienced firsthand some of the ways that this devaluation is compounded by racism, sexism, and anti-Blackness. It often manifests in exploitative work environments where people benefit from our talents and labor while treating us as disposable and inferior.
This reality can lead to even fewer opportunities for artists. Considering the fact that Wisconsin is 49th in arts funding, artists in our state cannot afford diminished opportunities. Still, I have had to turn down projects that seemed promising on paper because the risk of once again experiencing the manipulation, creative stifling, demoralization or exploitation that young artists are repeatedly subject to at the hands of so called leaders and mentors wasn’t worth it. And despite my efforts, I have still found myself in such situations because society’s willingness to devalue Black women and artists is just so great. But not working is not the solution. Generations of Black American women artists have been suppressed, denied recognition, and robbed of the ability to fully express their creative potential due to systemic oppression. Their struggles are my struggles. But if I let society’s devaluation of art convince me that my work had no value, I wouldn’t still be creating.
The lessons learned in art apply to life itself. Rejection, mistreatment, and dismissal are not reflections of our worth. Instead, they reveal more about the ones doing the mistreating. When my career feels stagnant or discouraging, I refuse to internalize that devaluation. Part of me believes that pursuing art requires foregoing a sense of certainty. But on a deeper level, I think the truth is that being an artist simply makes me more aware that certainty is an illusion. What I can control is my dedication and commitment to growth.
If I could speak to my younger self, I would say this: Those who benefit from your energy and labor while devaluing you don’t do it because they don’t see your worth. They see it. They just believe they have more to gain from you not seeing it. Sometimes, the same artistic expression that drew them to you in the first place becomes a source of resentment when your light shines too brightly. They’ll demand more of your creativity, expecting you to keep producing while you shrink. Be silent. Stay in your place. Just shut up and paint. They want the byproducts of your creative energy, but they don’t want you. This dynamic is both unsafe and unwise to engage with or attempt to reconcile.
As a result of this realization, and as a natural progression of my personal journey, I am making a commitment to fully owning the direction of my work. I am taking initiative every step of the way instead of waiting for permission or hoping to be cherry-picked. I am taking ownership of my losses, and, more importantly, my wins. This newfound initiative comes with its own challenges, including consistent rejection. But rejection has become my teacher, reminding me to keep moving in the direction of my goals, even when disappointment strikes. I’m focused on creating my own opportunities, seeking critique to reveal blind spots, and pushing beyond my comfort zone to induce growth.
Pursuing art has shown me that challenges, setbacks, and rejections are inevitable. But in uncertainty lies the potential for something beyond what I can imagine. Certainty offers no such promise.
