Dam Break
I had a reader write in asking,
"how come you don't just effing get to it?"
So here I am,
effing getting to it.
I feel that it’s time to write a “dear artist” letter.
Dear artist,
If making things makes you feel alive, maybe you were born to make things — who's to say otherwise?
Try on this idea: your pull toward creating is how you synthesize your experience of life into something visible outside your own head. It's how the people around you get to see a fresh angle on what your internal world looks like — because otherwise, how would they know? And because you're connected to the whole, something you make will shift the way someone else sees themselves. Most people never try to create much past elementary school. In that way, you serve your community simply by doing what comes naturally to you.
But that fear of putting stuff out there? It's holding you back from making more, and from getting better at it. It's also not giving anyone a chance to receive what you have to offer.
You have the capacity to be a prolific creator. No need to run yourself ragged — but at some point, it's simply time to make something and put it out, even if you don't know exactly what you're doing.
Even if:
you feel sweaty about someone seeing or hearing it
you think no one cares — or you think everyone cares
you don't know how to play it live
it's all fake drums
the head you drew is disproportionate
your mom will hate it
you feel like an asshole for saying it
you will definitely be misunderstood
Because what you're making is for you, and for the people who resonate. It's not for the people who don't. Universal likability is the path of the walking dead.
Your favorite artist, musician, dancer — did you ever think they were selfish for doing their work? No. You were grateful.
You can learn to live in a way where your thoughts and feelings actually make it all the way out into the world as art. That's the job. That's how you show up for yourself and your community.
No more rules. Make it. Be it. Own it. Follow what pulls at your center — not because anyone told you to, but because your existence is your entire value to begin with. Expressing the fact that you're alive right now, that you exist, is a beautiful way to appreciate your life.
Let it shine. Turn on the lights. Let's see it.
