Struggling to Find One's Place as an Artist in the World

Living with any kind of creative vision can be both a blessing and a curse. The artistic expression may bring one a lot of joy and satisfaction, but the struggle to make that expression bear fruit in the world is often a source of frustration. In his or her own mind, an artist sees boundless vistas - but the world of structure and form represents limitation. How discouraging it can feel to create something new only to discover that society only respects the familiar! It's enough to make creative beings wonder what they're doing here at all. Why do we carry this impulse to create if we're doomed to never discover a place where it can live?

The irony is that the world needs artists as much as artists need the world. Whether we're aware of it or not, myth underlies everything that we invent and sanctify in our human societies - and creative people are the makers of myth. Unfortunately, only a lucky few ever seem fated to receive acknowledgment and material abundance (i.e., money) in return for the service that they provide. Others struggle in obscurity; if their music, writings, paintings, poems, etc., are ever discovered at all, it's after their death.

Should these "doomed artists" be more willing to compromise in order to avoid penury and the world's disregard? Perhaps they would if they were able, but it's difficult for something fashioned like a saw to function like a hammer. Many people who are gifted in the various arts are simply not possessed of a lot of ability in other areas. No one expects their plumber to compose mystical poetry in his spare time, but artists are somehow expected to carry their vision and master another (perhaps wholly unrelated) trade on the side.

How many people bear such a cross throughout their lives? It might be comparable to asking how many people believe in angels; either figure is hard to establish, because a good percentage of them aren't going to stand up and be counted.

Renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell once advised us all to follow our bliss. For an artist, this means trusting that the urge to create - and the joy that it brings - arises for a reason. The impetus comes from knowing, on the inside, the path one should be following. It also means ignoring the "statistics" and the "harsh realities" of being creative people in a materialistic world and believing that what moves us will move other people as well.

Too often it is audacity and controversy that catapults an artist into the public eye. Someday, perhaps, the majority of people will hold a higher regard for creators with integrity. But that time will never come if the artists play it safe and sell out their dreams in order to live more comfortably. Some of us need to carry the torches, wave the freak flags, and - if necessary - be the thorns in society's side.