This is a question I ask myself regularly! It’s helpful to hear that other even accomplished artists like Meera Patel feel the same way—what is the use of making art, anyway? I also know that hopelessness is one of many emotions that rolls through me on any given day—and this is true for most if not all artists. There’s also excitement, resistance, flow, reluctance, soaring confidence, self doubt. The list goes on. The answer, of course, is to hang on, do the work anyway, with the understanding that doubt and fear and all the other negative feelings are as much a part of the creative territory as joy.

Just today Carolyn Yoo reminded me:

“What’s helped me break the myth of needing to always enjoy my practice is the reminder that creation is labor. You are making something from what was previously nothing! You are bringing your work into existence. No one would fault a mother birthing a child for experiencing messy feelings and all sorts of pain during labor (I hope). Flow state and joy may be an ideal state, but should it be the metric we measure our creation upon?
What matters is that you showed up, despite the chaos of your feelings and thoughts, and created something. Some of those days felt great, others not so much. Maybe all of it felt terrible. But you did it—you made the thing. And you will make more.”

I’m saying this out loud because while I may know the truth of creative practice, in those dark moments—and it happens more often than I’d like—I forget.

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