I could've been great

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

This is the schtick:

"I'm a creative thwarted artist compromising my freedom for domesticity".

We all need to recognize that living our lives, normal lives that include basic amenities like, say, a comfortable home and the luxury of a partner, all requires sacrifice of something on some level, just as having freedom to pursue our artistic dreams fully would require sacrificing something else, like maybe having a partner and a comfortable home. It is a balancing act, for everyone all the time, and all of life requires compromise.

The stifled artist-angst thing is not something I have great patience for. For one thing, I consider it little more than a lame excuse; a cheap out from actually doing the work. If you're an artist, you can be an artist in a crappy apartment alone or you can be an artist in a comfortable home with a partner. Same artist. If you were alone in a crappy apartment, you would simply find another excuse for feeling like a thwarted artist; that blockage isn't coming from outside. That has always chapped my hide... the people who think they're being held back artistically by the comforts of domestic life. It's crap. All of it. And it's lazy, disingenuous crap at best. It may "feel" romantic to be a thwarted artist when you're in the throes of it, but in the end it's unproductive, creatively hypocritical bullshit that leaves you with no art and no fulfillment. It's the fucking Mentos of angst.

If you are a great person and a creative brain, an artist, and you think you are not fulfilling your creative potential, you need to look inside yourself for what's holding you up, not externalize it and project it on your relationship or your job or your life circumstances. Not on your home, your kids, or your partner. You need to recognize that you are not some fundamentally different creature; that others, too, have sacrificed and compromised and sometimes miss the single, free life of intellectual pursuit and hot 3-am makeout sessions and writing and being a star. Everyone does; every single person. Great artists have, and so have non-artists. But we all grow up and we all change the ways in which we pursue those things, and what sacrifice and compromise we make hopefully leads us to the growth of other things or other ways of expression that we wanted MORE.

OR KILL ME.

[Arafelis]

Would it be worth it to have your heart broken again?

[Kai]

This is the schtick:

"I'm a creative thwarted artist compromising my freedom for domesticity".

We all need to recognize that living our lives, normal lives that include basic amenities like, say, a comfortable home and the luxury of a partner, all requires sacrifice of something on some level, just as having freedom to pursue our artistic dreams fully would require sacrificing something else, like maybe having a partner and a comfortable home. It is a balancing act, for everyone all the time, and all of life requires compromise.

The stifled artist-angst thing is not something I have great patience for. For one thing, I consider it little more than a lame excuse; a cheap out from actually doing the work. If you're an artist, you can be an artist in a crappy apartment alone or you can be an artist in a comfortable home with a partner. Same artist. If you were alone in a crappy apartment, you would simply find another excuse for feeling like a thwarted artist; that blockage isn't coming from outside. That has always chapped my hide... the people who think they're being held back artistically by the comforts of domestic life. It's crap. All of it. And it's lazy, disingenuous crap at best. It may "feel" romantic to be a thwarted artist when you're in the throes of it, but in the end it's unproductive, creatively hypocritical bullshit that leaves you with no art and no fulfillment. It's the fucking Mentos of angst.

If you are a great person and a creative brain, an artist, and you think you are not fulfilling your creative potential, you need to look inside yourself for what's holding you up, not externalize it and project it on your relationship or your job or your life circumstances. Not on your home, your kids, or your partner. You need to recognize that you are not some fundamentally different creature; that others, too, have sacrificed and compromised and sometimes miss the single, free life of intellectual pursuit and hot 3-am makeout sessions and writing and being a star. Everyone does; every single person. Great artists have, and so have non-artists. But we all grow up and we all change the ways in which we pursue those things, and what sacrifice and compromise we make hopefully leads us to the growth of other things or other ways of expression that we wanted MORE.

OR KILL ME.

YES.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

I like this a lot!!!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Would it be worth it to have your heart broken again?

It almost seemed worth it the third time.

[hooplala]

Thank you for this Nigel, it couldn't have come at a more appropriate time.  I have been procrastinating from my writing for a while now, and blaming different factors, but you are right... the problem is me and I need to work on that, not outside factors.  Thanks again.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

[Kai]

I just read Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud over the last week, and I'm reminded of his particular definition of art, that it is what is done for itself, whether this is of the raising of a wine glass for a toast or the writing of an epic poem; art is made for its intrinsic value to the artist. This extends the range of what can be art to so many things, and everyone is an artist of something.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I just read Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud over the last week, and I'm reminded of his particular definition of art, that it is what is done for itself, whether this is of the raising of a wine glass for a toast or the writing of an epic poem; art is made for its intrinsic value to the artist. This extends the range of what can be art to so many things, and everyone is an artist of something.

I like this. I like it a lot.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Thank you for this Nigel, it couldn't have come at a more appropriate time.  I have been procrastinating from my writing for a while now, and blaming different factors, but you are right... the problem is me and I need to work on that, not outside factors.  Thanks again.

THIS is very true for me as well.  One can always find an excuse and justify that excuse out the ass until it becomes fact in the brain.  I cannot work on this painting because the kids need me, or I have to do this yada yada.  But the thought that when I'm sitting on my ass with those same kids for 2 hours watching WIPEOUT instead of painting just doesn't worm it's way into my brain.

Thanks Nigel and Hoops for bringing it into the right perspective!!!

[P3nT4gR4m]

A lot of great art comes from the angsty depths of pain and suffering.

A lot doesn't.

Some people seem to get wrapped up in the whole "Van Gough" trip. Looks to me like they're too obsessed with the trip to even think about the art.

What the fuck do I know? I write some shit on the internet and play guitar badly at parties. That's the kind of artist I am.

[LMNO]

Let's not forget about the FEAR.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Van Gogh did some seriously amazing work, but........

I don't think we should confuse mental illness with artist angst.

Just sayin...

[P3nT4gR4m]

Van Gogh did some seriously amazing work, but........

I don't think we should confuse mental illness with artist angst.

Just sayin...

"angsty depths of pain and suffering" =/= "artist angst"

Just sayin...

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

A lot of great art comes from the angsty depths of pain and suffering.

A lot doesn't.

Some people seem to get wrapped up in the whole "Van Gough" trip. Looks to me like they're too obsessed with the trip to even think about the art.

What the fuck do I know? I write some shit on the internet and play guitar badly at parties. That's the kind of artist I am.

I'm not talking about when angst or suffering are channeled into art. Angst may or may not be channeled into art, just like joy and love and boredom and mediocrity may or may not be channelled into art, depending on whether the artist actually MAKES SOME FUCKING ART.

I'm talking about when the angst of not doing art is used as a schtick, basically to avoid working on the art.

"Poor suffering me, I would be a great artist but I just can't because I'm not living an artist's life, I mean I have this house and I'm not living in a shack in the woods or a grungy apartment in the city. Or something. Never mind that, what's important is that I'm a great creative soul and I'm tormented because I'm being separated from my art by this... ah... video game that I'm playing. If only I was poor and lonely! Then I would really be able to work on My Art! Also you just couldn't understand me because I have an Artist's Mind."

It's bullshit.