Or is suffering necessary to artistic mastery?
Who had it right? The Picasso’s “Old Guitarist” or Bob Ross’s “happy little clouds?”
>> Can a happy artist be a great artist? 😁
>> Or is suffering necessary to artistic mastery? 😔
The stories of great artists, musicians, and other creatives are often dreadful.
Tortured souls who battled addiction, poverty, disease, mental illness, early death…😳
So many of the greats — from Van Gogh to Janice Joplin — lived what seem like excruciating lives.
You might even begin to wonder if all this suffering is necessary to artistic greatness.
After all, if it worked for Beethoven, then it should work for you, too, right?
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It’s natural to look to the masters and try to emulate them.
But is emulating their needless suffering really a good idea?
Is a life of suffering and toil what first drew you to becoming an artist?
Is this really the kind of life YOU want to lead?
Is this really going to make the kind of art your soul longs for?
Is this really going to make the kind of impact you want to have on your audiences, your legacy?
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Here’s the truth.
💩 Suffering is like cow shit. Whether it’s a stinky mess or fertile compost lies entirely in how you handle it.
Do you dive deep into your wounds to find the gold hidden underneath?
Or do you try to escape, numb out, or cover them up, and thus lose the creative energy that lies hidden within?
👉 If you try to escape, then your suffering will only lead to a creative dead end. Your life will suffer, and so will your art, and your audiences won’t get to benefit from your creativity.
👉 But if you dive deep, then you may discover the rich, fertile compost within — the gold hidden in the dragon’s lair. Your suffering then transforms into a source of creative energy and inspiration that enlivens your life, your art, and the lives of your audiences.
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What many people don’t realize is that artists like Van Gogh and Janice Joplin are outliers.
They thrived artistically *despite* their wounds, not because of them.
After all, more suffering doesn’t necessarily lead to great art:
There are plenty of people who led lives of misery and created no masterpieces. Also, just because a work of art is dark, cynical, or depicts suffering doesn’t mean it’s a masterpiece.
On the other hand, false cheerfulness and a “positive vibes only” attitude have equally little creative value.
While it’s true that there are countless works of art that uplift humanity through beauty and light, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” for example, fails to move the soul of anybody other than toddlers.
Thus, creating a masterpiece isn’t about the “valence” of your life or creations (positive vs negative).
It’s about whether your positivity or negativity serves the sacred purpose of the arts: to brings us more alive; to inspire, heal, and connect. 🌌
The ultimate measure of a work’s status as a masterpiece is how well it serves this sacred purpose.
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As an artist, your suffering can serve this purpose when it, in the words of artist Alex Grey, it offers “the world the pain and beauty of [your] soul as a gift to open the eyes of and heal the collective.” 😮
Similarly, your positivity can serve this purpose when its sheer beauty shatters the boundaries of who you thought you were and connects you to something larger than your individual self. 💫
What’s common to both is the intention of bringing yourself, your art, and thereby your world, more alive.
This, to me, is what it’s all about. 🤗
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👉 Here’s the practical lesson for your life as an artist.
First of all, you need to know that your well-being, art, and impact are all connected.
Whole self = Whole art = Whole impact
That means that the deep definition of artistic mastery includes:
🌟 Leading a healthy, fulfilling life so that you can…
🌟 Create artistic masterpieces (in whatever that means to you), so that you can…
🌟 Touch lives with your art and make art that matters to a world in need.
Dealing with your suffering and wounds is absolutely a part of each of these aspects of mastery.
It all comes down to how you handle your shit. 💩
Whether through therapy, meditation, yoga, breathwork, journaling, psychedelic therapy, or countless other means, find ways of moving towards and healing your suffering.
It’s hard work, but the creative gold you’ll get access to is where your real masterpiece will come from!
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What hidden “gold” has your own suffering played in your artistic life?
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FYI — I’m hosting a special class where you’ll reclaim your artistic purpose and tap into a deeper creative energy you might not even know you have. It’s called:
“LOVE CREATING AGAIN: Revive Your Creative Spark, Reclaim Your Artistic Purpose, and Birth Your Masterpiece”
It’s on 9/28/24 via and it’s free!
Want in? RSVP here.
