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Hi my name is Katy Fryd and I am an artist and author of the Cat Inspector children's
book and I'm making these videos to help artists that are at the beginning of their journey
the start of their career to just let them know the things that Iwould have liked to
have known when I was starting out so that they can maybe live off their income as an
artist I think the first thing that you have to decide is what kind of artist are you what
kind of artist are you going to be? where do you want to get to? and you've got to then
believe and aim and ask in everything that you do working towards that goal and you've
got to don't listen to the naysayers the people who say you are never going to get there why
bother trying get a proper job don't listen to them because I can guarantee you one thing
- if you do not try you are never going to get there so let me give you an example of
not bothering to try recently I had a painting accepted for the Bentlif Art Award in the
Maidstone Museum and Art Gallery and they had a visitors choice prize there. The visitors
choice prize is basically visitors will go and they will choose their favourite painting
in the show and the winner at the end of the two months would get the exhibition space
for a certain amount of time in the future just for them so a solo exhibition. It's a
fantastic prize and I really wanted to win it. So Itold my friends my family my mailing
list, facebook twitter let everybody know that I you know go and vote for me go and
vote for my painting it's in this exhibition I even gave out pictures to some of my friends
to keep it in their minds that this thing was happening and to go and vote when they
were in Maidstone but towards the end I thought ugh the last day I thought I'll go and have
a look and see if what I have done has worked so I went in and I counted my votes and I
had twelve votes which I thought it had worked to some extent and I looked at this other
lady and she had twenty eight votes and I thought I might as well give up now as there
is no way I am going to win , she has obviously worked really hard to get that many votes
so I don't you know she deserves it I don't deserve it but then I thought another part
of me thought do you know what I've got nothing to lose now, I can either go home tail between
my legs and not bother and just think oh well I wasn't good enough or I can think I am going
to try my best I am gonna ask people what is wrong with that so I stood 100 yards away
from the museum and I said to people are you going to the museum and if they said yes I
said would you mind going to the exhibition above the museum and consider voting for my
painting and as I did that I handed them a flyer and I handed them a picture of the peacock
that was my painting of a peacock. I gave them a little print of it. I know that sounds
a bit like bribery but it was more it was for two things really one it was a gift I
was giving them something so they felt more open towards me and another thing was to break
the ice because it was easier for me I felt more comfortable handing them something it
was quite scary to go up to complete strangers and say scuse me are you doing this? because
the first thing people think is that you are trying to sell them something so giving them
something was a nice thing to do and so yeah they would go in and they would vote for me
they were really cool you know it was great I just had to ask and I don't know how many
votes I got I knew I got a few votes one lady came back and said you've got a few votes
now you know you might win ... I don't think I have and I can't give you a happy ending
to the story because they haven't announced the results yet but that is not the point
the point is had I not asked had I been too scared to ask I would definitely not have
won so You have got to deal with this fear if you are one of these people you may not
be but if you are one of these people who has this fear, fear of either speaking to
people there was another time where I went and spoke to someone from BBC RADIO 4 about
my book the Cat Inspector and I was terrified I was so nervous and I spoke to a friend and
she just said just do it don't worry about it you don't want to be one of those people
that worry about it just do it and I did and I was so relieved that I did it I was so scared
but so relieved so yeah you've got that fear of speaking to people to get over but also
for me there was another fear there and I thought about it and I thought you know what
I think I was actually afraid that I might win what a weird thing to be afraid of but
I think when you've had bad stuff happen in the past you maybe comfortable with that you
are comfortable with being treated badly or comfortable with bad things happening so you
don't expect very much so if you carry on not winning you feel that is comfortable it's
uncomfortable to actually have something good happen but yet you really want that good thing
to happen at the same time so I think you've got to deal with this fear of speaking to
people but also the fear that actually something good might happen so yeah I think you've also
got to make clear as well going back to what kind of artist you want to be you've got to
be clear about you know what you want to be I want to be as famous as David Hockney or
Henry Moore or Jean Cocteau and there is no reason why I can't be as famous as those people
why you can't be as famous as those people if you BELIEVE IT believe that you can be
and you don't have anybody if you don't listen to anybody telling you that you can't so I
know that I'm as good as these guys because when I was at school I made work I did a maquette
that was very like a sculpture that Henry Moore did I did a photographic montage that
was very like work of David Hockney I did a portrait, a pastel portrait that was very
similar to stuff Jean Cocteau has done and this was all done before I knew about these
artists, this wasn't like I'd seen these artists and I copied their work, I did this and then
I noticed that these artists had done very similar things to me so there's I feel like
there is no reason why I can't be like them like I can't produce that work and be in the
galleries that they are in and be well known at the end of my journey, not necessarily
at the end of my life, hopefully before the end of my life hopefully quite soon so another
thing is there is no reason why you can't start that journey right now to that goal
that you've got you've got no excuses I know that sometimes I've been heard to say I can't
be that artist the artist that I want that I know that I can be, I can't be that artist
right now, in the future I'm going to be fantastic I'm going to be great I'm a genius, but right
now it's really hard for me, my personal circumstances I can't go out at night I can't go to networking
events I can't go to private views I can't or it's very difficult for me to I can't mix
on the London art scene where I think everything is happening and financially it's difficult
for me to get to these things but that is no excuse you need to start now because I
have started make a video in this day and age you don't necessarily have to be in that
room with those people I mean yeah it's great if you can do it but if you can't do it there
are other ways other things you can do with the Internet now and videos and webcams and
youtube which is free so there are other ways of getting your message out if you think about
it if you are an artist and you are starting out and you've got lots of questions you are
going to be typing into the Internet How do I do this? How do I do that? Well if you are
the person who is making the video saying this is how I've done it that is one way of
... that is one way of letting people know the successes that you've had, let people
know things like that be on video say hi this is me this is who I am this is what I do this
is what my art is about so people will find you and also you can spread the word as well
but hopefully more people will find you so start now the reason why the videos work just
as well as networking in a meeting I mean it was like when I was meeting these people
and I was handing them things and I was saying go and vote for me we built up a rapport when
we were speaking one lady I remember really well we were chatting and we had a really
good chat and she was into art and it was lovely and we had this great rapport and I
hope that the rapport is coming across in this video so you can understand that you
can do that with video as well and I don't know whether you are a friend or you have
or you have found me, you have just been searching on the internet and you've come and found
me but if so that proves my point that the video networking works so yeah I hope you
found this video helpful I suggest you go and make a video right now and say hi this
is me this is my art this is what I'm about post it up on youtube so I hope you go and
create and make a difference and I'll see you soon bye!