Redhead’s Rap-Boundaries in Art & Life by Sherri Rosen
Boundaries in Art and Business
Have you ever had one of those naked dreams? You know, the kind of dream where you’re on stage singing your heart out and then you suddenly realize that you are stark raving naked? You wake up sweating, heart racing, and perhaps make sure your fly is zipped up before you head out the door that morning.
A similar feeling can happen when you are an author a speaker, a musician or an artist or athlete. Maybe you have books out there, or a new business venture. Or maybe you’ve produced a video or released a new music CD of original work. Regardless of your talent or particular project, the point is that you have shared your heart with the public, spilled your guts, exposed your soul for every eye to see. And then, to your horror, people notice you. The reviews come piling in, some good, some downright nasty. And you begin to feel…vulnerable. Suddenly, the world of publishing, music, athletes becomes…cold.
Boundaries. Every artist and every writer, athlete needs them. Boundaries are like a warm coat during a snow storm of freezing rain reviews. They are like a quiet living room or a worn pair of slippers when New York is in a fury outside your window. How can you be aware of your boundaries when you are in the public eye and you are open? How can you maintain a level of protection and privacy without shutting down?
Every entrepreneur and every author needs to know her boundaries or else she’ll wither inside. Keeping what is personal, well, keeping it personal can do more than save your dignity: it can save your creativity! We need a hedge, a buffer, something to shield us from the bad (and good!) reviews, the critics, the interviewers, the crowd. We need to be aware of our limits, our humanity.
Boundaries can guard that safe place of innovation and imagination. They can keep safe our deep heart in a world that is only too eager to stomp on the next heart brave enough to be honest. And so here is the artists’s, athlete’s paradox: how can you be honest and also have boundaries at the same time? In other words, how can you be naked and clothed simultaneously?
I, for one, am a very accommodating human being, but not a pushover. I will welcome a person/client into my life with great genuine delight, but if I get that what I call “red light” signal that the person is trying to use me, then baby, watch out!!! It’s over before they know what has hit them.
There is no trite answer, no smart quip. Every thinker or producer must figure out where to draw a line in the sand for herself. But a line must be drawn. Because it’s cold out there. And we’ve shared our hearts. And our hearts need to be kept safe.
Redhead’s Rap, NYC
Sherri Rosen Publicity Intl, NYC
Tags: artist, authors, books, boundaries, entrepreneurs, musician, open heart, publicist nyc, publicity nyc, sherri rosen publicity nyc, writers
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 9th, 2013 at 5:54 pm and is filed under athlete, Clients, Friends and Colleagues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
