30. The Journey

If you are truly an artist, it’s all about the journey.  It’s never about the destination, because you never really arrive, do you ?  There is always the next level, a new direction, another experiment, a variation in technique or process, a complete change of subject matter and / or approach, the “mistake” that leads to discovery, etc.  You’re always on the road to something else. Never arrive.

A journey takes time.  It takes time to learn oneself and then re-learn oneself as an artist.  It doesn’t happen overnight, it doesn’t materialize from a dream as nice a thought as that might be, it doesn’t come from reading a book, turning on a computer, or taking a pill that also makes you feel ten feet tall.  It is in the doing.  It is time spent.  If you are lucky as an artist, the time spent is more creative and challenging than not.  It is reason to live, it is your life, your life’s journey.

If you think you have arrived, you’re dead as an artist.