Art Is Hard

Most days I try to write, but there are only a fraction of the days when I succeed. My friend is a talented artist who works both on paper and screen. So many times, we both discuss the hurt that comes when you are starting something new. Starting is the most painful. Your mind goes numb and unconscious fear of the void surfaces. You try to come up with a topic or compose a sentence, or even a word, and you hear the critic in you, telling you this is not good. My friend creates these characters on paper and screen, yet he constantly says that he wants to give them emotion. That troubles him. Even though that appears flawless, he says, "feelings" are what give it life. Some days, my goal is to write simply a hundred words. Only a hundred, so I would feel like I had finished my task. And most of the time I do, but there are certain days when I can't when I think even one word is hard to put on paper. Then there are the feelings that get in the way and make it more difficult. But we both agree on one thing, that this is the process. And in Art life, the process is everything. Doing it even though it feels bad. Even though it is only a hundred words or a scribbled sketch on a small piece of paper, the process is everything. The process is what makes art and the artist. And the process is always hard.