Artists & Identity

Rachel Chada, MHC

When you’re a creative, it can sometimes feel impossible to separate your artistic self from your whole self. Artists of every medium often struggle to find nuance in self perception: “who am I if not an artist”? When thinking about identity in general, but especially with artists, I like to conceptualize identity in two ways:

Identity as the roles we play in life

Identity through this lens encompasses the way we show up in our external systems of connection—who am I in the context of those I’m surrounded by? You’re a provider, a partner, a family member, a friend, an employee, and a creative. In this sense, art is core to your systemic functioning. Maybe you come from a family where artistic pursuits are looked down upon, so your artistic identity impacts those relationships. Maybe art isn’t your primary source of income and it impacts your self-perceived value. Maybe you resent the amount of time you spend building social connections when you could be spending it on your art. Often, your creative self can feel neglected or threatened by the demands of your other identities.

When exploring identity through this lens, we’re trying to understand how we can make space for the identities most important to us without a sense of scarcity.

Identity as the parts in our inner system

Borrowing from Internal Family Systems theory, we are made up of a system of many parts. We have protective parts and wounded parts interacting, shaping our internal dialogue, core self beliefs, fears, and hopes. While we wouldn’t always identify one singular “artistic” part in this context, we can understand how our creative pursuits are impacted by our unique parts. What part of me feels threatened when sharing my art with the world? For example, many creatives tend to have a loud inner critic; a part typically designed to protect you, but one that often results in more harm than good. The inner critic tries to push for excellence and protect you from feeling like a failure, while simultaneously developing the core belief that failure is something to be feared.  Similar interactions can happen with your inner child, your shame, your perfectionism, your inner caretaker etc.

When exploring identity through this sense, we’re looking to create a sense of safety for our internal system so we can find more balance and nuance in the ways we speak to ourselves.

Identity is a complex beast for most of us, but especially for creatives who can feel the weight of their artistic identity. If you’re a creative of any medium looking to explore and connect with all parts of your identity, I invite you to join my upcoming Artists & Identity psychotherapy group: a 12-week summer exploration of yourself using a parts-work lens.

You can learn more about the group here or reach out to rachelchada@intuitivehealingnyc.com to see if you’d be a good fit.