Back to work

As aspiring artists we need to spend our time making art.

It's exactly that simple—and yet we often find ourselves spending more time sketching out possible Instagram posts, trying hard to craft the narrative, than actually doing the work.

Hell, the problem isn't the one script that gets rejected and ends up never benefiting anyone else. The problem is all the other books that never get written and all the pictures that never get painted. The problem is all the gold that is never mined.

Just like everyone else, you and I too hunger to be validated; to be seen and praised by others. So instead of spending our time creating and crafting, trying to find meaning and clarity, giving a shit if anyone notices what we're doing, we sit there with our mouths wide open like baby birds, willing to swallow any kind of direct recognition raw.

Ourselves and ourselves and our—fucking—selves.

Honestly, we should neither write our blog posts to boost our ego, nor paint our pictures to get our indifferent faces on the cover of an (equally indifferent) magazine. We know damn well that most people would rather click on quick and fun, no-obligation videos anyway, or hear some famous person speak warmly and passionately about, well, almost anything. No reason to cry about that.

All that doesn't matter.

We have to do the work and create something because it makes sense, and because we'll end up feeling utterly wretched and miserable if we don't manage to pull ourselves together and get it done. We have to do the work and create something because that is where we can best use a bit of the talent we have been given.

Okay. We're talking creating in the broadest sense—as in writing, painting, building, tinkering, or generally coming up with something new, quirky and original. Creating, as opposed to wasting our time sifting through what other people are creating or doing or thinking, constantly getting annoyed—(not at the others but)—at the fact that we're wasting our precious time.

We don't become grumpy old people because we've been forgotten and sidetracked, not at all; we become grumpy old people by always taking the convenient shortcuts, only thinking of feeding our own egos and not really bringing our creative talents to the table.

Official merits frankly are not that very interesting.

What is important is that we are doing the best we can. . . !

Hell, the problem isn't the one script that gets rejected and ends up never benefiting anyone else. The problem is all the other books that never get written and all the pictures that never get painted. The problem is all the gold that is never mined.

Thus uplifted, back to work!

(If you haven't yet closed your browser, now please do yourself a favor and do so. Pull on the work clothes and get your hands dirty).