I recently stumbled upon the book “The War Of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle”, by Steven Pressfield, and to my surprise finished it within 48 hours. Pressfield touches upon the many factors of Resistance and how when that Resistance is lifted, our inner creative genius can then prosper above and beyond. I could sit here and quote countless pages of this powerful book, but the reason I am writing this article is to share with you one specific quote that grabbed me by the throat and whispered, do yourself a favor and read this over and over again.

“To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.” - Steven Pressfield

Let me repeat this, in capital letters and possibly in bold, in case you cannot understand the magnitude of this sentence: TO LABOR IN THE ARTS FOR ANY REASON OTHER THAN LOVE IS PROSTITUTION.

Note: If you are an artist and your heart didn’t just drop into the hollowed out pit in your stomach, then perhaps you and I are not on the same page. And perhaps you should click the red “X” on the left side of the screen before you waste your time because maybe this statement is too powerful for you to comprehend (and that is okay). Or maybe you’re drowning in Resistance so, in that case, I definitely encourage you to put down the sandwich and pick up this book.

“To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.” I wholeheartedly believe in this statement with every fiber of my being. Art in general is so sacred. The studio, the rehearsal room, the lab, the theater, etc. are our safe havens. These are the places we go to connect to ourselves, with others, and with outside forces. What we create should be raw and organic. It should come from a place of love and passion so intense that words cannot even begin to describe how we feel. Too often, the art world is polluted with people who are obsessed with success or the final outcome. They get lost trying to make the pieces fit perfectly together and forget about humanistic qualities and flaws. But what if these flaws are what make art, art? What if the whole point is to be quirky and off tempo?

As an artist, my work erupts from my insides. I am not interested in the final product or if my next piece of writing is going to be a best seller. I am not interested in the amount of followers I get from posting a dance video or if people hang up my paintings in their living room. The most important aspect of this life I choose to live is the process. If I could, I would drag the process out for eternity. I would collect it, put it in a bottle, and mix it with my morning tea. I would wear it like a dress or bury it with me when I die. I have learned more from trying and not succeeding than I ever will trying and immediately succeeding. Because that is not real life. You don’t just succeed the first time and then feel satisfied. What is the point of that? To be an artist is to keep growing. It is to be authentic and ballsy. It is to love more than you are loved and to give, give, give, more than you take, take, take. And if for some reason or other you wake up in the morning and find that you are not in love with your craft anymore, then please, let it go or reevaluate how you look at it because art isn’t meant to be fake. It is to be a portal for those of us who are hard to understand and for those of us who cannot express how we feel in words so we do it with paintbrushes and music notes. Art is too important of a craft to be surrounded by corruption and imitation. So if I leave you with anything, it is this, “To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution” (Steven Pressfield).