On The Coming Of Age Of An Artist

The majority of people at some point in their life will come of age. They will become a version of themselves that they had not been previously. They will go from childhood to adulthood.

This is not true however, for artists—not every artist will come of age.

I’ve seen it too many times, someone absolutely talented who cannot defeat their own demons to actually create the art that they were made to create. They are in the middle of a great coming of age of an artist story but they crash out. They decide that making honest art is unsustainable, that they need to make money with it, they sell out (there are many different forms of selling out but that is a whole other blog post). The obstacles overwhelm the, the resistance defeats them. They lose their drive, they stop making good work, and they fall into the monotony of life. They don’t ever come of age as an artist.

If I could hope anything for you, young artist, it’s that you realize where you are in your coming of age story. That the thing you have to do is push through. I want to see you overcome your obstacles to create the art that you want to make and that gives a little bit of your magic to this world.

If you see your artistic journey as a coming of age story, you can tell that there is something you need to make, it’s further down the road and you will have to defeat resistance to get there. You know you have to evolve, mature as an artist to get there.

Don’t give up on your artistic dreams yet, your story is a good one and I can’t wait to find out how the rest of the story goes.

Old friends,