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An Entrepreneur Gave Me the Best Advice on How to Make Art
When I wrote poems with my friends throughout college, I realized some common themes of virtually all of our pieces. They were about love, sex, the past and our own disorganized self.
College was the first time my creative juices were on tap, constantly refilled and always fresh. I was even in a band with a couple of these guys and the same themes I mentioned earlier kept popping up.
As a result, I naturally started to correlate art with pain.
While I can’t argue that my reasoning was wrong per se, it certainly wasn’t beneficial. I wanted a better life for myself. I wanted to be happier. I said to myself, “But if I had a better life, would I be able to write as well as I do? Would my songs be any good?”
Movies are based on conflict, otherwise there’s no plot and therefore no point in watching them. My musical taste was pretty morose but I felt so alive listening to these artists express their grief or victory despite their obstacles.
I was in a tricky situation, a situation that became trickier once life actually started to improve.
As I feared, I couldn’t write anymore because I had nothing to say. Everything was fine and I had no need for catharsis.
