Must we make a currency out of our calling?
A letter to all artists about making sense of the art we feel called to create in a world that asks us to make it some money.
Dear Artist. Dear Gooey Heart. Dear Tender Creature. Dear Creative. Dear Friend Who Carries The Weight Of This World Strapped To Your Chest Like A Mushy Sleeping Infant.
We live in a world that asks us to be efficient, sure, and productive. It asks us to put what we love to good use. It looks at you making your art and asks, “Well what are you going to do with that?” As if the making of it isn’t a gift enough. It concludes that if you’re not successful by its definition of success (doing something full-tilt until you run it into the ground), then you must not care enough, or you’re not talented enough, or you you don’t have what it takes.
Art is the thing we reach for when there are no answers. It is the blanket that holds us. It is the soundtrack to the love that expands us. It is the story that revolutionizes the way we understand each other. It is the narrative we consume in which we see ourselves reflected in someone else and realize we are not alone. It is the thing that is able to hold us in our anguish. It is the thing that points out the beauty and the horror of the world. It is the doula to our grief and disappointment and dissent. To be called to this kind of work is to give the world a new understanding of itself.
We are asked to make a currency out of our calling. And if you don’t make something of yourself and your art beyond the actual thing you create, then this calling must just be a hobby. But there is nothing hobby-like about putting your whole heart and soul into your work. There is nothing hobby-like about being this honest and truthful and vulnerable. There is nothing hobby-like about channeling the good, deep, gutsy stuff of all this living and finding a way to express it, and offer it to others to comfort their discomfort, to challenge their apathy, to shake them awake in their complacency.
There is nothing small about what you make. Even if you make it for you.
The world needs you to be making art, even more than it needs your art. And it needs your art too, however, if ever, you choose to share it.
xo jess.
Ah, my friend. I just started writing a piece about how we need to stop romanticizing self employment and independent working artistry. this is so kindred to the feelings i've been having these last few days. Thank you for being a beautiful mirror.
Struggling w this today as I ritualize a walk in the woods, encounter no magical animals or spirits’ guidance and wonder what I am doing. Thank you for your love(ly) dear heart. ❤️🩹