Step Zero : Whats Really Stopping You?

The Invisible Barrier Between Your Soul Work and the World

You can watch this essay on YouTube as presented by Helen Norton

“Why your real work is still in the basement – and how to bring just enough of it into the light without sacrificing your soul.”

This is an edited transcript of a recent video I shared on my YouTube channel. It’s for artists who’ve kept their real work in the basement for years, and can’t work out why ‘step one’ – a first exhibition, sharing, selling – feels impossible. I call the thing in the way ‘Step Zero’…

The Hidden Pain of Unseen Art

The greatest painters are never discovered because they never put their work out there. So many artists end up leaving that work in the basement with a very big part of their soul so they can just get on with their life, you know, their daily thing. Nobody can live with that feeling all the time. Can you blame people for just getting on with their life and you know they've got bills to pay? There are some amazing painters who have never taken the risk and so you might be one of them. Basically, your work dies in the basement and you can't live in the basement with your work.

If this is you or you can relate to it, I just want to say this to you. Just don't give it all. You don't need to dish up your heartst. We're all about identifying, you know, your soul work. But the commercial world of selling art is not, and I repeat, not worthy of judging your soul's contents. It's not. Don't get this confused.

You Are the Protector of Your Soul

And at the same time, there's always these paradoxes. It can help you if you learn to trust this one thing. And that you are the protector of your soul. You're the boss. Stop thinking that you need mommy matriarch or daddy patriarch to tell you if you're good enough. It's just crap. There's only one judge and it's not even a judge. It's the life force and that is going to push you. No matter how embarrassed or ashamed or scared you are, it's going to keep pushing you. You just got to learn to trust it.

There's very little in our culture that helps you understand that. That basic point, it's all about mimicking and following the leader, isn't it? And that's all for marketing reasons. Just trust it. If it wants to come in to the light and show itself in the big world, then release the kraken. But keep your treasure safe. You never need to expose your inner child to the tentacles of the out there in the world. You are the boss. You're the keeper.

As soon as we stop blaming others, anything, anyone, whatever, we can actually start to take charge. It's amazing feeling. It's like this thing where you finally say, "I've got your back, kid. Don't worry. If they kick you, I won't. But get on that darn bike." And give it another shot. But just keep your britches on, okay? Don't throw it all away. Learn how to protect yourself and your soul and guard the most important parts of it. The mistake only happens when we think we've got to put all of that out there. And that's what it means to have an art career. The approval of the world, the patriarch, the matriarch, all those big worldly things or the feelings of them.

Remember your way home. If you get kicked, you just regroup. If you have this good home inside yourself, you really understand that you are your keeper. You tell that kid if he gets kicked to come home, have a hearty dinner, a warm bath, and get some good sleep in your warm bed. And tomorrow, try again. Never moduddy coddle your courage, but also never abandon your own need to retreat and regroup. regroup is to not give up. It's where you pull back, reassess, and go again. I bet there's so many of you that have stuck your toe in the water and didn't like the way it felt and then just pulled back.

What This Video (and Workshop) Is About

So, what's this video about? What I just shared is the absolute heart of the matter and it's so important that I have decided to build a special fourpart mini workshop around the whole thing to guide you through this process. We've had a lot of concepts and philosophy and soulsearching so far on the channel, but I have been promising something pragmatic. So, here it's coming.

Today in part one, we're just going to have a heart-to-he heart chat to lay the foundation. This is just a talk. If you came into my studio and you had this problem, I would just tell you this. In part two, we'll get very practical. I'm going to go to my whiteboard and I'm going to break this down like drawing pictures and stepbystep kind of blueprint. In parts three and four, I'm going to share two powerful real life stories. One is about a friend who started from nothing. She was a cleaner and became an artist. And also a small chapter in my own story only a few months ago to prove to you that this is absolutely possible and it's not just a problem that happens to new artists.

So settle in. We're in for a bit of a journey together if you'll stick with me. I know in making these videos I need to draw a line in the sand as to who I'm talking to. That's the YouTube thing, right? And while this conversation might seem like it's just for artists who've never exhibited, I can tell you right now that all the content on this channel so far has spoken also to longtime artists as well.

This Applies to Beginners and Long-Time Professionals

people who've got 30-year careers who just get stuck in a style, for example, that's been approved, but they end up just as paralyzed as the beginner artist with their real soul voice locked in that same basement to protect it against the elements. I know because I've been there. I've got so many art colleagues and friends who have long careers and they've come up against exactly the same thing often at the peak of their career when they've got a lot to lose by disrupting that process all because the soul's banging on their door and those same artists by being overly protective of what they've got in the basement which is really important you know that you do that it is actually you know your boundaries but they're just like the beginners hesitation they get into the same place.

They're also locked down in artists block or imposter syndrome. That's what's often called and it's exactly the same paralysis. The advice is the same on voice courage. So whether you've never shown your work or you've been showing the same safe or popular work for decades, this video is for you.

Step One… and the Invisible Step Zero

So let's talk about that first step on our journey. How do you get your first exhibition? How do you even get to step one? That's where we always start, isn't it? Step one. And why for so many of us, this seems impossible. It's because there's an invisible step, and I call it step zero in the way. It's kind of left out because it's not logical. It's not definable. It's not something you can box up in a course and say do this and that.

But step zero is the one that is paralyzing you and it's the one where you must choose to proceed despite the way you're feeling your doubts. You've got to put aside your precious and just go and do it anyway. That's the thing. Everybody says that, don't they? Oh, just do it. It's not like putting the rubbish out or washing the dishes. It is called step zero in my view because it is almost impossible to work out using rational logic. This is all about looking at that issue and stopping that fear that you'll put the wrong foot forward and that will be the end of the world.

Especially if the world doesn't like it or you think it's you kind of is right. If the world rejects your real voice, you know, if you actually manage to get it out there, why wouldn't you hesitate to put it out there? That is the real problem. And that is the fear that's crippling you into inaction. Sometimes it does that for decades. I know artists that have been working for 30 years keeping that voice in the basement for very good responsible reasons.

So you're not alone if you're someone who's worked a different career or a job all your life because of your responsibilities and now you're here and saying I just want to do what I want to do. you know, there's room and space and time, and you're thinking, why can't I do it now? We're going to walk through that fundamental process, how to get your first exhibition. We'll navigate the worry of choosing paintings from a very messy portfolio, all darlings of course, but connecting it back to the sole archetypes.

Finding Your Soul Archetypes and Voice Clues

So, I've spoken before at length about the idea that you don't have to please everyone. You just got to find the people who resonate with your soul's color. And let me reassure you right now, the direction you choose is not a life sentence. It's just simply step one, which is creating a cohesive body of work to get the conversation started to get the flow going. But before you can do that, before you can choose your portfolio, you've got to get past 0 point zero, right? That really tricky one.

So what's happening to people, and you know this, I'm not telling you anything new. My point is that all the advice you get out there is focused around people just telling you to do it. Just get on with it. As I said earlier, that doesn't fix the problem. That doesn't fix ground zero. Why can't we do step one?

So when we try and create a body of work, it's disconnected from itself because we're painting different things that are coming from our soul and we don't know which thing we should go with. So it's natural to have tons and tons of different things in your studio, you know, like half finished works where you've experimented or tried something, you're checking out the way something feels. That's really, really normal. you should see my piles of stuff that's never gone out to the world.

The problem is that everyone's scared to pick a style that they can actually make their work look cohesive with. There's a reason we need to focus on that because the main enemy when we try to create a body of work is this fear. So after we get that batch of work, we need to go the next step, which is to get a showing of a batch of your work in a public place and make sure it's for sale at a reasonable price. Can you see? Now, if you're too precious about your darlings, you're not going to want to sell them or you're going to overpric them and it's not going to work, right? You're just going to get slapped down. That's why in a way, maybe when you're starting, don't put pressures out there.

So before that, we've got to solve this psychological problem. I know I'm going slow and there'll be some people that are going to get really mad at me for hovering over this point. Get on with it. I've had a few comments like that. What's wrong? Get on with it. But I don't care. I know how this affects us. I have been in this game for 38 years. I know how this works. And I really don't care if someone's out there going, "Get to the point."

Studio Chaos, Style, and Voice

You know what the psychological problem is? That we go to our studio, we start having a great time creating art. That's the whole point. And because we're having such a great time, we're doing all these different things. So, the work looks different. It looks like completely different styles. Of course, it does because it is. Remember the baker and the bread? You know, if you if you were training to be a baker or a cake maker, would you just make one loaf of bread right from the start? Set your whole business plan up on that? I don't think so. That's why I use the baker's analogy in my first couple of videos on this channel.

As we've been discussing, your style is not your voice. But the idea is to integrate your voice into your style or to stylize some parts of your voice. Understanding which parts to focus on is the key. Okay. So that will also help you unlock step zero. Hopefully when I do the whiteboard I'll make this a lot quicker. So let's look at the first practical clues where your voice is already showing or shining through.

Here are our steps. Identify these things. These are really easy and logical. What do you enjoy most when you paint? I know that's broad, but what gives you the thrill? That's the one to look out for. It might be a topic, a feeling that you're evoking in yourself. It could be colors. It could be a method of applying paint. It doesn't actually matter. There's no judgment on that. It could just be you with head banging music throwing paint out of a bucket. But you need to identify that because that will actually tell you where you're actually enjoying yourself and not just like grist for the mill like learning how to set up an operating system on a computer or something.

It's really important just to do that. Notice where you keep going back to when you go to the studio or even when you look back through what you've done and you get a little thrill. That'll be a clue. There'll be some design factor, color usage, brush stroke, or like a little success that you keep repeating. It's quite important.

Then, of course, take notice of what you love in other people's art. You've probably got a Pinterest board or something like that. What do you like when you look at those pieces? Why have you saved them? Why do you follow certain artists on Instagram? What is it that they keep triggering in you? Just keep that in mind. And we can write a few of those down. When you like something from someone else, you're not copying or doing mimicry so much. It's triggering something deep inside you that says, "Ah, that's who I am or that's a part of who I am. I relate to that. That's on track for who I feel like I am."

That's your soul's voice matching up with someone else's. And that's where we come back to the soul voice I keep talking about in the video on soulm. Now your job is to get these things to come together and to work together. So it's actually not that hard and I think that's why we miss it all the time.

Building a Cohesive Body of Work

All right. So here's the next thing. You need a body of work. 10 to 20 pieces of artwork. And you'll also know that you need that body of work to look as if it's coming from one person and not like a group exhibition. And you know you're struggling with which of the many things you've been painting is the one you want to put out there. You know what kind of style. Now, you know, you need a way to decide which way to go without panicking and becoming paralyzed by a decision that feels too hard. That is key. All right. So, we just put that up on the table now. We're not going to pretend it's not happening.

So, you're scared that if you commit to something, you'll be stuck in it. So, we got that. That's another point. In my other videos, I explain that you don't have to be stuck on a style, but you do need to establish some kind of style code or recognizable aspect in your work in order to move forward. You have to. It's just that's the social contract. Look, it's like a niche. I've got another YouTube channel as an artist and I've got all sorts of arty stuff over there, painting, demo, studio things, all sorts of things, exhibition openings, but I started the new channel because I knew that I would actually have to niche down. So, I studied all the things. Everything's about niching down.

So, I've had to leave like a huge part of my expression over on the other channel. But in order to create this channel so I could get you to come and hear what I've got to say to you, I had to choose what things to sacrifice. I chose, ironically, to not put painting demos here, which is the crux of my work. So you've got to choose something where people can find you. So, all right. The very pragmatic point there is that they walk in to I know I'm pretending it's in a cafe. I'm you're keeping it so you can imagine it and you've managed to get this work in a cafe and people can walk in or if it's in a little gallery, people can come in and they see it and they say, "Oh, I like this artist." when they walk into the cafe and see your work on the walls because they can see it's an artist, not a group show.

So, let's just use that cafe as an idea to keep it simple. So, they see something they relate to. Something gives that viewer a little leap of joy in their heart or a spark and they say, "Oh, I recognize that. I want that." And off you go. That's how it starts. How much is that painting? Yes, that's affordable. I will buy it.

Letting the Market Steer You (Without Owning You)

So, let's move on to the next point. How the market will steer you for a while, right? So, we don't have to be frightened of this. This is going to happen. So, there you are in your little boat. You've pulled out of the harbor. You've got your cargo on board and you're heading out to the big ocean. And of course, you hit the big currents. And if you want to get to the other side of the ocean to where you're heading, you're going to have to know how to use the wind and the currents. So, you're going to have to let them take you for a while. It's part of life. It's part of trade. It's how the world goes round.

I mean, if you're prepared to go out and get an ordinary job, you're already in that flow. You're trading something of yourself as an exchange because it has value in the world. Selling painting is no different. Doing your soul work as an artist is one thing. Selling it to the world is another thing. But you can bring your soul into your work. My whole channel is about you integrating them through a quite logical process, but it's also deeply emotional and getting over your fears. As a result, you're going to be steered for a period of time. It could be a year. It could be a few years. It might even be many years, like 30 of them.

But you'll be steered by what you know resonates with your viewers and what they place value on and you agree as part of the trade to keep doing. So it's not like you've got a gun at your head and they say you paint this painting or else. It does feel like that eventually when you betray yourself too long, but you are actually a part of the deal, right? So get over that. It doesn't mean that the other parts of you that you've left in the studio or the dungeon are not valid and good. It's not that the world, you know, the outside world, the market only approves of one part of the multi-toned color of your soul, but this is the world of commerce. This is how business works. And I think we all know that.

But we get this mixed up. our emotions, our soul, you know, what's really special to us. We get it all mixed up and then it gets frozen and you get locked in. There is a compromise and this is how you do it.

Getting Something of Yourself on the Wall

Right now, we're only talking about getting something of your own self onto that wall and hurrying up about it so you can get feedback from the public. And that is how you can actually grow. and also bring in these other parts of yourself eventually. So, how do we narrow down where you're going to focus? This is a good time to give you a demonstration of how sometimes that feedback you get is so important because you can't necessarily see the part of your work that has appeal. You know, you get lost in your studio or room not knowing which is which. and you'll have an Instagram feed. You're just putting everything up there, but you can't really choose which one is my voice.

This is something that happened recently and I was communicating to an artist and she wasn't totally sure about what her style was and she expressed that to me and I had a look at her Instagram feed and it was actually wonderful and I just couldn't believe that she couldn't see it. I could see there were quite a few different things there, but mostly I could see her soul or voice. And on a handful of her more recent postings, it was barking loud. So I pointed that out to her. This is where your voice is barking loud. That is to me it looks like what's hitting me in the eye.

Now remember, I'm an outside person. I'm not her. I'm not in her soul dungeon. But I only said that also because those images appealed to me and what's in me, right? So it's not her soul, it's me as an outside observer who might be a buyer. Other people will have different things going on as well. But remember, if you've got to sell or you want to sell, you can't ignore the factors of the market like I just said. And that is what other people like. the factors of the market aren't like a, you know, it's not like a big bad thing. It's fundamentally what do other people like?

And yes, there's heaps of sheep hurting going on where people are told what to like because of the marketing of you buy the Nike shoes or whatever it is, but you can't even make a scratch on that unless you actually start and put it out there and brace yourself for some feedback. This is exactly how you put it out there. You can always adjust later on. You can always pull something back or put something more in, you know, something you feel like would make the work better or more you. Initially, you do need feedback and you can't get that unless you take a step forward. The way you bring in your own development and other ideas is that you ease them in. You don't shock people. They'll run away. But first, you've got to make a call. Draw a line in the sand.

I think it was Jordan Peterson that said, "Choose your sacrifice. Something has to be sacrificed, but not, you know, you're not abandoning your soul. It's still in the dungeon in the studio, but you've got to actually let something go in order to move forward. You don't have to kill the other parts off. They stay in the studio alive and well.

How the Art Market Behaves Like Any Other Market

So let's do a reality check on how the art market behaves like any other market. It's just commerce. I'm not talking so much about art institutions but about the way selling any product works. It's based on whether people attach value to it or not. Right? It's quite simple, isn't it? Just think of yourself going to the shops. you know what do you choose and why why do you choose that particular piece of clothing dress pants whatever over another one it's exactly the same with art on a fundamental level right we go into all the deep stuff later but at a basic level what I mean by that there's other reasons people buy things which is pretty much the same thing oh my neighbors got one so I want one initially it just has to have appeal I think that's the point when you're at the beginning level of putting your work out there your Prices should be very affordable.

There's nothing like stirring up your inspiration by getting sales, even if they're at a lower level. Get them sold. Move them on. Don't get too precious about the imagery. There is nothing like selling. When I had my first sellout in Sydney, I was high as a kite. I would have painted a thousand more paintings in a week. Take good photos of everything. You've got them. The whole idea is get the flow. Get the thing moving. When you sell work, you can make more work, more creativity.

So, don't put all your precious out there. You just put aspects of precious. All right, let's get this one straight. If you get your wish, which is I want to be selling my work out there in the world and making a living from it, then let's look at the reality of that. If that wish comes true and you do become a high-selling artist, a good selling artist, let's face it, you'll have to sell high and you'll have to sell a lot of work and you will have to paint a lot of work. You'll have to be abundant. You'll have to do a lot of stuff. So, you got to be able to let things go.

Bread-and-Butter Models: Mars Black and Betty Franks

There's so many good examples of people who've done this really well. I'd like to give you a couple of them because I watch them and I think that's a really good formula. They're not necessarily using a gallery. I know one of them is exhibiting in a gallery, but initially she didn't start like that. And they are actually painting a little bit formulaically, but it doesn't matter initially. Get it moving because the confidence of bringing in your true soul comes once you get things moving. You get confidence. People buy your work. You feel like you've got the approval to bring more elements of yourself in.

Then it's up to you to make the next moves, which is to bring in more of yourself, more of whatever it is you've left out in the work. You can gently ease it in or bring it in fast and hard, but the market will soon tell you whether or not that's going to work. Two examples that come to my mind straight away of artists who've done this, I guess you could say, packaging of themselves on their own terms are Mars Black and Betty Franks.

You can see their model if you just study it a little bit. Mars Black and his Instagram profile, I'll just pop it up here, is particularly interesting because he basically paints these small paintings. They're tiny. I think he sells them for about6 or 700 US each depending on their size. And he sells everything and he does a lot. He does tons and they have the life of little funny twisty cynical messages. Very simplistic. There's not much like skill going on in there like you know without being rude. I mean he's a very skilled painter actually. I've seen some of his large works, but he's worked this out and his sales, they're just via the Instagram and I think he's got some other page and he sells hand over fist.

So, he's worked out how to make a good living. Very clever. And yes, he has his other work which is probably in galleries. I didn't even look at that. And the other one is Betty Frank. Same thing. You don't actually have to have a contract with a big gallery. Betty had a bit of a leg up because she got on I think it was some TV show and that made a massive difference. But the thing I love about what she's done is that she milked it. She's made hay while the sun shines. She didn't waste the opportunity. She jumped on YouTube. She was doing painting. She made her own channel. Had, you know, these big painting demos where she would just paint whole paintings for two hours and lots of loyal followers would just sit there and watch. It's amazing really.

She just didn't waste the opportunity and I think she had a background in marketing or business so she had that savvy which was what kind of kicked her across the line. I think Mars Black has been around for a long time too. He's got some very significant paintings but he's worked out how to make the bread and butter money from these tiny little paintings which don't consume everything in him. He just has these crazy kooky little thoughts and he just whacks them out almost like a cartoonist with a special edge. Reminds me of the Farside cartoons.

So it's not just one thing. You don't have to be the great artist of your time. Honestly, that whole myth is such a mess and we just don't have to go there. This is what I'm trying to do. How to give you an outline to help you know which work is your voice, which one you should go with. Here's some ways you can do it to test it out to get some feedback. You can use social media. It doesn't matter if you don't have a huge following. Just get feedback from anyone.

Feedback vs Approval and the Archetype of Taste

And of course, you don't have to listen to people that are being just stupidly negative. You're not looking for approval. Here's the difference. Feedback is not approval. Just listen to what people love. Pay attention. You don't have to become their slave, but just pay attention. Just listen to it. You're not compromising yourself. You did it. You painted it. So, don't worry about that. Of course, you may have done something that was very close to copying someone else's work and that's what people like. But just make sure that you change those things sufficiently so that it is yours. And then carry on and listen to what people are saying. Just listen to them. It's a combination. It's not selling out. It's listening. I'm not contradicting myself about painting from the soul. I'm not contradicting myself one little bit.

I hope the soulm videos I've already made where I've told the stories about, I don't know, the Aboriginal man and all those things show that what we think is only ours is not only ours. What we think is just us. There's an archetype. Yes, you are an individual, but there's an archetypal thing moving around and it's there all the time. We'd have to be blind Freddy to deny that we're all drawn to certain aesthetic qualities in art. We may have differences in taste, but we can also agree that some things just look like crap and some just look pretty great. These are all the things that we're always battling with.

We can put some dot points on the board right now. What interferes with genuine aesthetic response is marketing and visibility. Big corporations that own a product will try and brainwash you into loving the product. But if they create a good product and supply a good product, then just learn from what happens then. They've actually created a system where you can get the product. So they've made it viable. So as an artist, if you don't provide a system where people can get the product and if the work isn't something that appeals to them, so doesn't have value, then nothing happens.

There's no need for us to be envious of people that are succeeding. That is really just the basic rule. So here's an example of what doesn't work, right? If at the moment you yourself feel like absolute crap and you're painting that crap, which might still sell by the way, or you just feel like life is a bit harder than normal and that's all that's showing up in your work, then it's probably not going to gel with the people who want to wake up and see whatever it is they've purchased on their wall. It's quite logical, isn't it?

The question you're asking yourself is, if I paint this and put it out there, would someone hang it on their wall? Would they wake up every day and look at it? That is a fundamental question. It's one of the strongest tips I can give you to keep asking yourself. You can paint things that are really seriously mean and nasty or just meaningless, just downloading boxes out of your head, but they still need some beautiful aesthetic feeling that gets the work across the line. They usually appeal to someone who loves that feeling, but they still want it to be beautiful on their wall. So, you know, you might be painting sorrow, suffering, sadness, but if it's presented beautifully aesthetically, someone will put it on their wall.

Why would someone want to wake up every day and look at a wall of, I don't know, tampons, and I remember this from a piece of art that was in one of the state galleries here. What is the point?

Step Zero Revisited and the Invitation Forward

So, there it is. Step zero, the invisible barrier. that's been keeping you stuck. So, we now understand that we don't have to dish up our whole heart and that we're the boss of our own creative soul and it's okay to just put forward a taste to test the waters. In fact, it's better to not deliver all your goods for all the reasons I've gone through and the fear that you've been carrying. It's not protecting you. It's robbing the world of what you do have to offer. And more importantly, it's robbing you of the joy of actually sharing your voice. You know, feeling a part of the world.

If you're ready to move past step zero and into action, I've created a practical road map for you. Part two of this series breaks down exactly how to choose which work to put forward, how to create that cohesive body of work and how to get it on a wall somewhere, even if it's just a cafe. I'll be at my whiteboard with pictures and there's a free worksheet to guide you through every step. You can find part two and the rest of this mini workshop in the playlist linked below or just stay subscribed because I'll be releasing them over the next few days.

Just remember, your voice matters. The world is waiting for what only you can create. Try not to let the fear stop you from putting it out there. I'll see you in part two where we can get really practical and start moving forward. Until then, be kind to yourself.

~ Helen - 2 December 2025

“If this lands in your bones and you’re ready to move from reflection into action, I’ve created a free mini-workshop and worksheet to walk you through Step Zero and into your first body of work. You can find it here ➜ [link].”