Day 87 of year 3
“Creativity takes courage.” – Henri Matisse
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” ― Thomas Merton , No Man Is an Island
The life of the studio has the same ebbs and flows as everywhere else. Some days or weeks are easy and joyful, some are difficult, and some can feel like trudging through mud. Right now I'm experiencing a bit of a malaise with my work. The darker more muddy colors this month seem to reflect that. When Matisse said "Creativity takes courage" he may have meant the courage to express yourself or to break norms, but there is another type of courage. I it see in my fellow artists, the courage to show up and do battle with the self, to create in the face of every self judgement, every moment of resistance, and painful or uncomfortable feeling that spills out in the work. I am grateful everyday for their example to guide me. More than anything else, to adapt Thomas Merton, being an artist is a journey of finding the self in order to lose the self. It is a journey of deep transformation leading the artist ever deeper to the loving arms of The Artist.
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