Raise your hand if you're an artist who has caught yourself applying the following lens of perceptions to your creative process or piece of art:

1) Valuing the final product over the creative process

2) Basing the success of your art on views, likes, comments, and impressions

3) Undervaluing your contributions because of idolizing and coveting another's path to success

4) Assuming what you will create will not gain the "reach" you feel it deserves or needs

5) The statement "Who needs another [fill in the blank with your creation] has run through your mind

6) Assuming a creative block or creative rest is time wasted on the journey accomplishing your goals

7) Assigning a time and place on when and where your work will take flight or become "viral."

Are you an Artistic Soul?

I get it because I've been there, and I come face to face with these questions weekly as a performing arts educator. How am I supposed to ignite students' artistic abilities when I feel depleted and deprived of my ability to make a difference through my artistry?

The ebbs of personal disbelief that I deal with come from the black and white thinking mentioned above AND committing a significant amount of time, energy, and money to being a living and breathing adult. Somedays getting up, clocking in and clocking out, driving home, and making dinner has me completely spent. When do I have time to stay inspired, creative, and motivated when I work full time, plus two part-times, and there are only 48 hours in the weekend? Time becomes even more scarce when you consider errands, chores, and spending time being present with loved ones.

Artists not only have to:

A) Get themselves together to work a job to pay bills

B) house, feed, transport, clothe themselves or others

We also have the task of researching our creative flow and creating a life that allows that flow to thrive.

We don't give our artists selves enough credit, as we don't just go through the motions of life.

Artists Innately:

A)see patterns and connections in unlikely things

B) have an elevated connection to source to use our artistry as a healing elixir

C) use our medium to express the hidden undercurrent of our culture

D) Take on a beginner's mindset with humility and grace each time we start a new project

E) are comfortable with finding a part of ourselves and losing a part of ourselves many times over

What does Art do for the soul?

Indulge yourself in some or comfort food or a good word by artists of color, whose quotes appreciate in value each time it hits our soul in an inspiring way- which is something that happens to be timeless and priceless:

"The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in."

-James Baldwin

"Within each thing, you're creating, no matter how you feel like you're failing within that particular exercise or that particular framework of what you're working on… there's something in there that's opening something up in you."

-Carlos Murillo

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."

-Maya Angelou

"I'm not going to continue knocking on that old door that doesn't open for me. I'm going to create my own door and walk through that."

-Ava DuVernay

"The artist must bow to the monster of his own imagination."

- Richard Wright

From idea to execution to fruition, the artist's mind is solemn idle. Should an artist consider spending time not only on the details of the product but instead nurturing the state that makes their art production inevitable? If would like to indulge that state, let the language of these artists be a comforting meditation.