Building A Satisfying Life in the Arts
You are called to a creative career. What are some challenges?
As an actor or other artist, you are called to a career in the arts. How do you feel about that career and your identity as an artist?
How do you stay in touch with your motivation, confidence, and energy in the face of multiple challenges?
"I didn’t want to dedicate my entire time to this industry.” Zoe Saldana [photo]
“It feels meaningful and right. At the same time, you don’t necessarily feel happy or fully satisfied with your career.” Psychotherapist Mihaela Ivan Holtz
Judy Greer: “I still struggle with being an artist but I’ve decided to start really just telling myself I’m an artist and seeing if I start to believe it…”
Many actors, musicians and other performers may be highly sensitive people - “I’m very sensitive in real life.” Jessica Chastain
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"I didn’t want to dedicate my entire time to this industry.”
Zoe Saldaña "has been hungry for recognition since she was 9, said Kyle Buchanan in The New York Times.
"Money left by her dad paid for private school, but she was looked down on by her wealthy, lighter-skinned peers. Saldaña decided to fight back by channeling all her energy into ballet and her ambitions of acting."
“I was like, ‘I’m going to be the prettiest, the thinnest, the brightest, most agile,’” recalls Saldaña, 46. “It didn’t matter if I had to skip that meal and dance those extra six hours: I was going to be relevant.”
"That fierce drive helped her win lead roles in blockbuster movies like Avatar, Star Trek, and Guardians of the Galaxy [and Emilia Pérez].
"But by her 30s Saldaña realized she couldn’t maintain that pace. “You go, ‘I’m tired, I’m hungry, I’m lonely. I want to eat a burger and I want to ask for help if I’m feeling sad.’”
"Then in 2013, she met her husband—with whom she now has three sons—and began trying to enjoy life."
“I didn’t want to dedicate my entire time to this industry.
“The older I get, I don’t know if it’s perimenopause, but you just care very little about things that were so important to you that are so arbitrary.”
[The Week Magazine, Jan 24,2025.]
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Photo: Paula Patton in ‘Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ (2011). She has commented about the creative depths of filmmaking:
“A movie is painting, it’s photography, it’s literature – because you have to have the screenplay – it’s music. Put a different soundtrack to a comedy and it’s a tragedy.
“A movie combines all those forms and forces you to pay attention for two hours with a group of people.”
But she also points out: “Making African American films are hard in Hollywood. We need to rely on a support network and bring more cohesion to different filmmakers, actors, producers etc.
“It's a very difficult business. There aren't a lot of Africans Americans or people of color in high positions in Hollywood that we can green-light films.” [quotes from her imdb profile]
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Artists and the challenges of arts careers
Dr. Mihaela Ivan Holtz of Creative Minds Psychotherapy helps creative people in TV/Film, performing and fine arts.
In one of her articles for entertainment business site Stage 32, she addresses some of what draws creative people to arts careers, and some of the many challenges.
Dr. Holtz writes:
“You love being an artist. When you create, you feel at home in your own realm of imagination, fantasy, and storytelling.
It feels meaningful and it feels right.
At the same time, you don’t necessarily feel happy or fully satisfied with your career.
You feel that your reality doesn’t quite match your dreams, and that’s a challenging place to be.
It’s hard to feel like you aren’t getting where you want to be in your career…”
When You Aren’t Achieving What You Want in Your Artistic Career, What Do You Do? By Mihaela Ivan Holtz.
Managing career pressures
In another article (on her own site Creative Minds Psychotherapy), Dr. Holtz notes:
"You chose this career in the arts. You love it. It’s fascinating and it gives you the privilege to live your heart’s desire.
Yet, you know that this work takes more than passion. You need dedication and action to for your creative ideas come to life and to make a living as an artist.
As much as you love this work, some aspects of your career may feel more like an unsolvable puzzle or and unending maze. Always trying to figure out what’s your next job, show, or audition….The demands never end."
In her article, she includes "some powerful, healthy options to help you work with pressure" and notes "When you can preserve your emotional space, in the face of challenges, you can navigate your career pressures in a powerful new way."
How to Cope with the Pressure of an Artistic Career by Mihaela Ivan Holtz, Psy.D., LMFT | Therapy for creatives
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“Making art is satisfying on so many levels.”
Pat Autenrieth is a mixed media artist using photography, digital printing, silkscreen, rubbings, rubber stamps, drawing, painting, collage, embroidery, applique, photo dye and quilting.
Her work has been shown at the Museum of American Folk Art in New York, the National Museum of American Art in Washington, and elsewhere.
She was Project artist for American Masterpieces: The American Quilt 2009, Textile Museum, Washington, DC, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.
In our interview (from a number of years ago), she commented:
“Making art is a way toward being whole.”
She notes that art is, at least “to some degree” a form of therapy. But, she adds, “I don’t know of any working artist who doesn’t need to make art in a larger sense. Making art is satisfying on so many levels, that it has got to have a healing effect.”
From my interview article: Pat Autenrieth: “Making art is satisfying on so many levels.”
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Bridget Everett (HBO’s “Somebody Somewhere”) responds to an interview question: "What advice would you give your younger self?"
"I wish I would have taken a chance on myself earlier. I didn’t really start going for it until I was in my mid-30s, because I wasn’t a Broadway singer; I wasn’t a TV person.
“I felt like my physique prohibited me from being on Broadway or on TV because I didn’t see a lot of what looked like me in any of those spaces.
"The best thing that my friend said to me a long time ago was, “Do you.”
“You have to find the thing that makes you unique or different or special and lean into it. Define it and go for it."
She also says “What I learned was, the more I poured myself into it—whether that was acting, writing, looking at all the little details, all the production side of things—it only made it better.”
[From article "Bridget Everett’s Path From Cabaret Performer to 'Somebody Somewhere' Lead By Allie Volpe, Backstage June 7, 2023. Photo from her site.]
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“In her book ‘I Don’t Know What You Know Me From: My Life as a Co-Star”, Judy Greer reveals her insecurities towards calling herself an ‘Artist’.”
Sam Jones, host of The Off Camera Show:
“You said something in the book that I thought was really interesting – you said for a long time you questioned whether you were an artist, and you finally came up with the idea that your art is holding a mirror up to people…”
Judy Greer: “I still struggle with being an artist but I’ve decided to start really just telling myself I’m an artist and seeing if I start to believe it…”
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Angela Bassett: “I really believe that what I do as an actress is my God-given talent. This is my calling, not my career.”
“The first time I acted was in high school in Florida, and when I heard that applause I felt so alive and felt that electricity go up my spine.”
“The three things I said when I came out of school were I want to work consistently, I want to do good work and I want to be paid fairly, and that’s happened. But I didn’t become an actress for the money. I do it for other reasons.” [Quotes from her imdb profile.]
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Jessica Chastain won a SAG Award for Best Actress in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
Jessica Chastain: “I’ve wanted to be an actor my whole life and ever since I was a kid it was the only thing I really ever thought about and there were years of studying and auditioning and not getting jobs and I know what that feels like and I know the loneliness of what that feels like.
“And so for those of you who are struggling and feeling unseen I just want you to know to keep going because you’re one job away, I promise.”
She says, “I’m very sensitive in real life. I cannot not cry if someone around me is crying…even if it’s not appropriate.”
From my Highly Sensitive site post Jessica Chastain and Psychologists On Being a Highly Sensitive Person.
Related post: Artists may be powerful because of their high sensitivity - “Most actors are highly sensitive people.” Nicole Kidman
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