being creative

it's one of those days. i accomplished pages and pages in the last weeks, still i feel bad. for not being further. for getting things wrong. for daydreaming too much, while there is a world in turmoil out there.

and then, there, in the web, questions and answers, typed out on the other side of the world. lines that in their essence reflect my mood. that put things in a perspective that i wasn't able to reach on my own today.

I have another writing deadline and am tangling deep in the middle of a manuscript. Hence, I have no time to do anything else. Including art. Feeling guilty about that. - I can’t seem to shake the feeling of guilt hanging over me lately—can’t seem to ever feel like I’m getting everything done well enough, fast enough, etc–yet I can’t seem to figure out what to cut back on. Shouldn’t I have accomplished more by now?
- C.

being creative is finding ease with the constant sense that you are your own worst critic. I got to a place of peace when my sculpture teacher said to me in my post college years, that being an artist wasn’t about showing in galleries, or getting published. It was about living a life that made sense to you. about finding your own skin a place you wanted to be. that artists hung themselves when they defined their work towards goals that were not really theirs.
easier said than done.
- M.

this thought touched me to the core. even though it's nothing new. but i guess i needed to see it put in words today, to remember it: that being an artist isn't about showing in galleries, or being published. that it is about living a life that makes sense to oneself.

thanks for that, CM.

(backlink: because i've almost slipped off the face of the earth)