I Know Why Artists Are Starving

Because it's personal.  More than any other creative medium, art is personal.  Writing is personal, too, but it can be easily dismissed as being one's opinion...whereas art is a piece of me.  It comes 100% from within me.  There are no pre-formed strokes that one combines to make a picture like you do with words.  Granted, there some some that combine those words better than others.  They are the storytellers.  We love to read their work.  It entertains, educates, and challenges us, but that is usually the goal from the beginning.  

Creating art is an outward expression of something inside of me.  If, for one reason or another, you don't like it, it feels like you don't like a piece of me.  Ouch.  I'm sure (in my logical mind) that isn't truly the case, but that's how it feels to my creative mind.  Vulnerable. That's why artists are starving.  It can be painful if the given audience doesn't like their artwork...unless I'm doing it for me.  So I just don't put it out there in the first place.  No work.  No pay.

Friends, I share this idea not because I have figured out how to push past artist/writer's block.  I share it because I struggle with it.  I have to give myself a deadline.  That's the trick for me.  Someone has contracted with me to do something, so I must do it...whether I'm scared or not.  Start somewhere and work from there.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  That seems to be a common theme for me lately.  It's a growing season for me right now.  So grow I must.  The alternative is to wither and stagnate.

What do you need to grow through?

Make it a beautiful day, friends.

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