When you’re working as a first generation artist—or author, entrepreneur, etc.—you are doing something really difficult. You are like an immigrant of sorts.

It is the complete opposite of the parent-child duo who can perform on stage together, or do an art show together. Your parents practice a different craft and they will have trouble believe that working as an artist as a profession is possible—let alone even understanding your work. 

You might have a distant uncle or aunt who practices and has experienced some minor success, but you are mostly if not entirely alone in the process. If you’re lucky, you meet a role model early on in your life who makes things vivid for you. They don’t only serve as real-life mentors, they plant the seed of possibilities in your life.

For some (many, if not most?) of us, that luck takes a different form. Firstly, you might only follow those people from a distance, and you won’t have a chance to actually meet them. If you’re a particularly driven or curious child, you will pick up the phone and call—but there’s a good chance you didn’t realize that was a possibility, or know how to do it. 

You are a stranger in a strange land, in which you must compete with other people with all sorts of advantages that you probably do not have. You will constantly feel like you’re falling behind, you could have done better with more time or money, and a sense of doubt that you’ve got what it takes. There’s a reason that the tortured artist is a common image. It feels like every force is working against you.

There are consolations in this situation, perhaps the most important one worth considering is that this situation cultivates its raw material where your art will bloom. If you can withstand the pressure, or bypass it altogether, then you will be well on your way. You will be the first person in your recent family tree to activate the pursuit of art, which comes with the appreciation that while your parents aren’t artists, they have set you up in their own way to do so. 

The second generation’s story might be interesting, but it’s the immigrant story that is the true hero’s journey. The same goes for the first generation artist.