What is Impostor Syndrome?

good morning, bob. i’m looking for a breakdown on “impostor syndrome”. do you know anything about it?

Good morning, Gorby! I’d be happy to provide you with some information on impostor syndrome. It’s a psychological phenomenon where individuals doubt their abilities and have a persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud, despite evidence of their competence. This feeling often occurs in high-achieving individuals and can lead to anxiety and a lack of self-confidence.

Impostor syndrome can manifest in various ways, like attributing success to luck rather than skill or constantly feeling like you’re not as good as others perceive you to be. It’s essential to recognize that many successful people have experienced this at some point in their lives.

If you’d like more details or have any specific questions about impostor syndrome, feel free to ask!

is there any known cure?

Impostor syndrome isn’t something that has a specific “cure” in the traditional sense, but there are strategies and approaches that can help individuals manage and overcome it. Here are some steps you can consider:

1. Acknowledge Your Feelings: The first step is to recognize that you’re experiencing impostor syndrome. Understanding that it’s a common phenomenon can be reassuring.
2. Positive Self-Talk: Challenge your negative self-talk by replacing it with positive affirmations. Remind yourself of your accomplishments and capabilities.
3. Set Realistic Goals: Establish achievable goals and break them down into smaller, manageable steps. This can help build confidence as you achieve each milestone.
4. Seek Support: Talk to friends, family, or a therapist about your feelings. Sometimes, just sharing your thoughts with someone you trust can alleviate the burden.
5. Develop Skills: Continuously improve your skills and knowledge in your field. The more confident you are in your abilities, the less likely you’ll feel like an impostor.
6. Accept Mistakes: Understand that making mistakes is a part of learning and growing. Embrace them as opportunities for growth rather than as evidence of incompetence.
7. Mentorship: Seek out mentors or role models who can provide guidance and reassurance. They can share their experiences with impostor syndrome and how they’ve overcome it.
8. Therapy or Counseling: In severe cases, therapy or counseling can be beneficial. A mental health professional can help you explore the root causes of your impostor feelings and provide strategies to manage them.

Remember, overcoming impostor syndrome is a journey, and it’s okay to have moments of self-doubt. The goal is to develop healthier self-perceptions and build confidence in your abilities over time. If you’d like more information on any of these strategies or have other questions, feel free to ask!

that’s great, thanks. can you make up a poem about it, maybe fashioned in the style of e.e. cummings?

The Impostor Sneaks

imposter
syndrome
sneaks in
like a shadowy thief
in the night
it whispers, it taunts
“I’m not enough,” it sighs

But let us
not forget
the heart’s true beat
the soul’s sweet song
for in our doubts, we find
strength to prove it wrong

With each step
we take
in the dance of life
we silence the doubt
and banish the strife
impostor
syndrome
may linger and lurk
but we are the artists
of our own great work

=========================================================

Impostor Syndrome can be a tragic limitation, especially in the form of obsessive-compulsive. It’s hard as hell to beat, but it can be done.

In the meantime, can I interest you in a painting? If not for yourself or a beneficiary or  perhaps for resale to a collector?

David Teniers Oil on Canvas

Was this painted by David Teniers the Younger? Perhaps, or by one of his apprentices, but in any case, it could only have been painted in his studio and nowhere else — it’s impossible to determine which of several examples was the first and which were the copies, but Teniers turned out paintings like some artists produce prints — by the dozen, and this “Smoker” is one of them.

There were no color photos back then, nor could it have been copied in a museum at that time.

The dating of this painting is certain, somewhere around 1655, give or take 30 years, so it could only have been done at the studio, where the “original” was available.

It normally takes a few days and even a few weeks to make a copy like this, and can sometimes take longer, so the painter had to have continual access to the “original” from which this was painstakingly copied over a period of time, taking daylight and candlelight into account.

Often the copies will have one or two details that are differently painted, but it’s all within the scope of generating paintings that can be sold again and again, and that means making many, many copies to produce income but also to make the apprentices better painters, but not too good, or they became competitors, which often happened.

The whole thing rests on the apprentice system. You signed up young, and started out cleaning and carrying and grinding and some more lifting and carrying and cleaning.

You were lucky if you were given a chance to prepare a canvas with fish-glue or rabbitskin glue, or to make a brush or grind some paint pigments or carve a frame.

Eventually the apprentice was allowed to put in the underpainting around the “cartoon” drawing put there by the Master. The apprentice would bring the painting along as far as he could, and then the Master added the final touches, as you see here in this example.

A popular subject and a popular piece, this could only have been copied from the original, and that would have only been in the artist’s studio.

About the Artist

David Teniers, the son of the painter David Teniers the Elder, was born in Antwerp in 1610. His father was his first and principal teacher in painting.
While David Teniers the Elder had been unsuccessful and was even put into debtors’ prison, Teniers the Younger became known all over Europe as a master painter.In the early 1630s Teniers the Younger became close with Brouwer, who was of great influence on him. At that period he worked in Antwerp, where, in 1632, be became member of St. Lukas Guild, and, in 1645, was elected its deacon.
In 1637, he married a daughter of Reuben’s friend, “Velvet Brueghel”. The dowry was serious, and the marriage brought Teniers into the circle of acquaintances of the great master Brueghel.
In 1651, the Teniers family moved to Brussels, where he had been appointed a court painter and the director of the art gallery of the Spanish governor-general, Archduke Leopold-Wilhelm.
He was a founding member of the Antwerp Academy of Art (1663). Very productive master, he left more than 2000 works and had great success with Flemish aristocracy. He followed fashion and whims of his clients.

He was a profuse painter, and often produced dozens of slightly different versions of the same basic piece, taken from his pencil drawings in the field. He was particularly fond of painting bar scenes — one can only imagine why.

He painted everything: genre pictures, still lifes, animals, scenes of hunt, landscapes, portraits, religious scenes and allegorical subjects. One of his early works Members of Antwerp Town Council and Masters of the Armaments Guild is a rare example of group portrait in Flemish art.
His multiple pictures of scenes of popular Flemish life, painted in attractive shades of blue, red, cream and grey, with light effects and transparent shadows, are much influenced by Brouwer. Twelfth Night (The King Drinks). Kitchen Scene. Peasants Dancing outside an Inn. etc.
His Art Gallery of Leopold-Wilhelm pictures precisely documented the famous works from archduke’s collection. Teniers also made small-scale copies of 246 pictures from this collection, a visual record which helped to retrace the fate of some long-lost masterpieces.
Teniers’ works were very popular during the 18th century and all the Royal houses of Europe were quick to buy them. One of the best collections is in The Hermitage.

Back of the painting reveals 17th century frame construction — this is the original frame, built around 1655

Label on back of frame.Detail of corner bracings of original 17th century framework.