What if I suck?

When did we decide that art had to be objectively good before it could be deemed valuable or worthwhile? What if what I make isn't considered worth anything?  What if all the practice and all the time I've put into my craft has been a waste of time?

What if I suck?

Am I the only one with these anxious little thoughts floating around in their mind? I deal with this type of thinking almost every day. Especially on days when I'm more prone to fall into the "comparison trap". 

You know the comparison trap... It's the trap that you get caught in scrolling through social media and seeing artists in your field blowing up with likes, comments, and follows. Or hearing your friends crazy excited about another artist in your same discipline.  Other times you could just stumble across someone's work that you deem better than your work and you instantly feel it in your gut. I SUCK!!

As a rapper, I feel it when I listen to J. Cole or Kendrick Lamar. As a film director, I'm nothing compared to Quentin Tarantino or Spike Lee. I don't have the acclaim or the financial success of the aforementioned.  I must suck at what I do! 

Well, I do! In some people's eyes, they would rather watch paint dry than watch one of my films... I'm trying to learn how to embrace the subjectivity of my work. I do believe in my abilities but I also understand that not everyone will get what I'm doing through my art. Some may not connect with it the way would've hoped and that's okay...

Art, in its many forms is completely and utterly subjective. There is no single authority in the entirety of the known universe that can judge a piece of music, a painting, an excerpt of a poem or whatever, from an objective perspective. If there was such a person who had the one true perspective of art, I would then question if it is art at all. 

I think my point is whether people love your work or not, it still has intrinsic value to someone. Even if that someone is you and only you, it's still very much worth it.