A Letter to a Struggling Artist

This is a message to any artist who has ever felt an overwhelming sense of doubt, a feeling of being trapped and unheard in a voice of thousands of others, who have felt like they wanted to give up. It is a letter to anyone who has thought that maybe everyone else was right about them- that you’re wasting your time on art. This is to try to prove to you that you cannot let them win. Especially not now, at what may be your lowest point.

First. One of the main problems many artists seem to encounter is the question of whether or not they can even be considered an artist. You might be wondering if you’re even worth being called one. Here’s your answer – you are an artist. As long as you are doing something that you think is art, as long as you are doing it because you want to, as long as you are doing it because you cannot imagine yourself being more free than doing anything else – then you are an artist. You have been since the first moment you decided up a paintbrush, a quill, a camera – and said that it would be the extension of yourself because it felt right. As long as you are creating something that hasn’t previously been there, as long as you are creating something that only you can, as long as you are making and continuing to make art – then you will always be an artist.

Second. People will try to make you believe that what you are doing is not important. They will tell you that it is inconsequential, and that other jobs will contribute more to society. Do not listen to them. These are the people who have not found that a book can bring you to thousands of worlds, that you can save humanity in a video game, that fictional characters can show us to be our own heroes, that music can be an anthem in our daily battles – these are people who have not learned that art can save lives. What you can do is a miracle that alchemists have been trying to achieve for centuries. You can create images out of simple chemicals meant to imitate colors. You have  made emotion out of a combination of different sounds. You have the capacity to craft a human being from a combination of only a set number of letters, out of ink, out of paper – art is our living proof that magic is out there. It is ours to breathe in and craft with – all you have to do is believe. It is a sorcery that transcends distances and barriers, and you can see the world through someone else’s eyes, almost as if you have experienced their life first-hand. Art is our source of real, human empathy. It is the greatest evidence that we are not alone. Do not let anyone tell you that what you do is not important.

Third. Often, you will question if you are any good at what you do. You may join classes which give you an “F” for the painting you spent hours on. You may be rejected time and time again by various publishers. You may watch other artists you know gain success and wonder if you really are wasting your time – if you can even contribute anything to the world of art. That is fantastic. Every moment you overcome this fear and decide to continue making art, you are proving to everyone that you deserve to be an artist. Art takes courage. Courage entails telling your fear that it is not as important as it will make you feel it is.

The reason art requires courage is because you will be trying to do something no one has ever done before. This means that you are challenge what has previously been accepted as possible, as acceptable, as the truth. This is why censorship is used to stifle revolutions and why art can offend so many people. Not possessing courage means you are not strong enough to be yourself and to continue being yourself. This is one of the most important things you need as an artist. In a world that keeps saying that we are limited, you need the drive to believe that limits are only as big as you allow them to be. There is a reason the universe is continuously expanding.

People used to think flight was impossible. It may not have happened exactly how we predicted it would, but that’s one of the great things about human achievement – it rarely turns out the way many might have imagined it would, because someone has dared to imagine it differently.

So be brave. Believe your art is worth it. Believe you are worth your art. It will not be easy – no one ever told you it would be. You always have the option to stop- to simply accept the world others want you to live in. But it would be a shame for you to not take the opportunity to change the world by simply creating new ones. It is the reason dictators do not like art that criticizes them. It’s the reason science is driven by science fiction of occasion. The world needs your art, whatever it may be. The world needs your eyes. You can never predict how your art will be experienced by someone – you can change a life. You can save one.

Children need to grow up in a world where there are still sources of magic out there. Wonder has become a scarce resource. Every piece of art you contribute adds more wonder to the world.

You have chosen a difficult road, but it is free and chaotic and unpredictable. It has no rules and therefore no guides.

The road you have chosen is a blank canvas, a new sheet of paper, a silence that can become a song – the journey itself is art. Every path is completely different for every artist. And no one else can replicate yours.

Create your path and do not quit on it. Because more than just the world, your art needs you.