"The discomfort isn't blocking the door, the discomfort IS the door". This one I need to put up on my wall

Greetings. I'm a surrealist artist that has been painting for over 35 years. I want to comment on the sensation(s) of completing or giving up on a painting. There is  a subconscious switch that, for me, goes off and suddenly, I'm done with the piece. I had worked on a 3x4 foot piece for 6 months, 7 days a week at minimum of 6 hours per day. I was obsessed with it. My nightly dreams continued to pour content into this piece. I'd stop and work on other paintings, but always finished my night with that one. One morning I was looking at it and realized I was done. It was almost like a slap in the face. I can't describe the almost betrayal that I felt. I had to remove it from my easel right away. I'm looking around my home and found an unlit area and made the space for it. While I'm putting a wire on the back of it, I would see sections on the work and see how much work had gone into it. I finally hung it and walked away. I felt loss, hurt and abandoned. I wouldn't turn on the light in that room for a few months and then it was chosen for a show here in Tucson, AZ. Last Saturday night during the opening, I had the opportunity to take a look at it in a gallery setting. The comments were so rewarding. There is a disassociation that happens I guess. The heavy muse that I carry is ready to start on other pieces right away with no time to heal from the last piece. I think it is the strangest part of the process. Never mind where the heck these ideas are coming from. Stay inspired, be good humans.

"The mistake that you keep making is your signature trying to be born." Beautiful insight, and I know someone who needs to hear it. Thanks. I'll credit you when I share it.

I am a painter , sculptor , musician and there was a time when i didnt create anything bcs my head was bursting with too many ideas but now i ignore all the noise to concentrate on 1 thing at a time. i have realised i have ADHD at 67 years old and wondered why i smoked so much weed to concentrate , my point is it has taken so long to be in control of my creativity if i only knew when i was 16,

What used to freek me out about finishing a drawing was that I felt that suddenling some one else had drawn it !

Absolutely spot on with the grief when you finish an art piece. 😢 oh I have experienced that so deeply. I finished a 22 ft mural that I worked on for 3 years and I totally fell apart and felt so lost ...its been months and I still haven't picked up my paint brushes again yet.  But this is making me feel inspired again...thank you❤ I love your wisdom.

The procrastination is avoiding. To not feel the hollow, unperfect, or bad/mistake. But like you said, It is The Doorway.🚪
Funny enough, since I allowed myself to just draw and be bad at it or silly, I had more fun doing it. 😂

Art also reveals the beauty in your soul, it's not always a negative reflection, some people r fine, deal with it!

I couldn't figure out why the hell my second book was taking so long. No dry spell has ever lasted this long or been as specific. I could WRITE, just not THAT book. Well, fast forward about two years, still wracking my brain why it's not coming, and I go to my first Pride and my egg cracked, and it was messy. I'm agender, and I realize that I had a right to be seen as who I am, not a collection of biological traits or societal expectations put on me by people who, even in queer spaces, enforce the binary too much, treating nonbinary people as a mid point, and flat our erasing agender folks. Once I came to this conclusion, and deciding that I want to start treating my body more like a canvas than a point of shame, I started feeling the urge to write again, but not just anything, a few familiar characters. I crossed the final hurdle when I went back to read my first book again, it all clicked... I was writing a lot of my journey before I ever processed it. I looked back, and every single one of my stories is about identity issues, performative societal obligations, the crushing weight of expectations, dual lives, inner monsters, transformation, and atonement. I was writing letters to myself in the present the only way I knew how. And that scared little kid bullied into acting, and dressing, and living a certain way got me 90% of the way here, I owe it to them to get it the rest of the way. To tell those stories. To refine them, and make them everything they know their art is capable of.

"The feeling you're trying to avoid isn't standing between you and the work. The feeling is the work. The discomfort isn't blocking the door. The discomfort is the door." AMAZING

This is what I pay my internet bill for. Speaking to my soul. Thank you.

"You are not the judge of your own gift" and that hit my heart.

'starting isn't hard because nothing is there, [...] starting is hard because everything's in there' this is by far the most profound thing i've heard because it is so obvious yet so overlooked!! thank you so so much for this perspective and wording!! 🙏

Sir, I am a Submarine Veteran, an artist, and a children's martial arts instructor. Thank you for sharing your experiences and your lessons learned. Ways of saying things I have said a thousand times yet some might still not understand. You have given me yet another perspective to share with my students. First time I have ever seen your face, yet your knowledge spewing from your poetry speaks of your training. Thank you for sharing.

Art = Life = Art = Life...♾️

This might be the most authentically honest video on art I've ever seen. It talks about life and art from a clear perspective of someone that has been sitting with these thoughts and feelings for so many years. Thank you so much for sharing with the rest of us.

"The mistake you keep making is your signature trying to be born." This blew my mind so hard, I felt breathless. Stopped the video so I could recover and write that down. Now, I want to build some textile art around it. Ty.❤

5:25 ❤ our mistakes are our style

Thanks for your wise input!! There is so much more that we are sharing in creating art; the effect of colors, tones, vibrations, coding, subjective and objective feelings, atmosphere. So don't  hold back, whatever is meant to be brought into form from the potential is on display for all to see, contemplate and respond to. Be grateful that you can express with no limitation., and most of all enjoy it.

'Give your life time..', I'm not an artist, but I feel that your musings are relevant to life in general and that you should keep writing. I love your approach to looking at the artistic process, but it's also the process of living. Everything you say applies to life, from the first mark on the canvas, to accepting that which makes us unique (loved your music story btw), you have more to say about living than all the self help gurus out there. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.