Finding Myself as an Artist

Over the last few days, I have struggled with something I never imagined to be so difficult. Finding myself as an artist has proven to be as hard as finding myself as a person. While finding myself as a person has taken as long as my whole life with more of the journey lying ahead, finding myself as an artist has just sprouted in recent years. It's a similar process, going through phases of opposite extremes, making mistakes and learning from them, to ultimately deciding who I want to be and what I am. Although finding myself as a person may seem like the biggest hurdle of my young life I think finding myself as an artist is equally important. Before I was out of elementary school I always knew that I would one day want to have a career that gave me the creative outlet I would love. As I have matured and grown older I still feel the same way but struggle in finding a happy medium between being able to do something I love and have a passion for, for the rest of my life, and doing something that will support me. I know understand the term "starving artist". Even though I may be good at expressing myself through art I might not get "discovered" until later in my life if at all. However, I've always had the dream to be an amazing artist and telling people stories of my life through that; I am the type of person who doesn't just dream, but chase after my dream to turn it into reality. With that being said, a couple of days ago I asked a friend of mine who is also a photographer how to get my work better know and was given a few art sharing sites that would help me. One of those sites being Deviant Art. I explored the site a while and eventually made an account on the 30th. In the 4 days I have been active on the site I have uploaded 285 photographs and had more pageviews than I would have ever imagined. Not just pageviews, but comments, favorites, and messages sent to me by other artist giving me an abundance of great helpful feedback. I didn't stop there however, I began to upload photos again on my Blue Canvas account and also made a Flickr. I haven't been as popular on the latter than I have been on Deviant Art but I am positive if I keep up regular posting on all 3 sites I will get the results I so desperately want. I'll add links to the bottom of this to all 3 of my profiles, in case there are others out the who read this and would like to see my profiles or join yourself. It's rewarding to post on a site where you know you are surrounded by others with a similar passion, and it is a great way to be inspired to continue and better the hobby one loves.   Deviant Art
Blue Canvas
Flickr