Immortal combat as an artist is not about facing the blank canvas, for creating art is a blessing. The combat that has any lasting value must entail defeating your inner demons (fear, anger, jealousy, hate), while engaging any outside forces that would hinder the space and time for you to create.

Contrary to the stereotype of the artist as a damaged lone figure, a victim, or a pacifist, the true artist is no less a warrior than an independent Samurai with an unwavering allegiance to his own code of conduct.

If you’ve been a follower and not a leader, what did you expect?

“In light of knowledge attained, the happy achievement seems almost a matter of course, and any intelligent student can grasp it without too much trouble. But the years of anxious searching in the dark, with their intense longing, their alterations of confidence and exhaustion and the final emergence into the light—only those who have experienced it can understand it.”

—Albert Einstein (1875-1955)

The true artist experiences no less than painting the equation for creation on every canvas.

Now, is a good time to set your inner clock to chime with good news for this New Year—let it be a world of adventure and peace with limitless appreciation for art, and no place for hate.

I keep the following information in mind and heart every day.

Thoughts are like powerful x-rays that can travel light years instantly. Thoughts can pass through most any object, and an over exposure of negative ones will harm living matter. Remember, you are harboring the thought, the thought has no power if you are not a coconspirator.

In his book, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, John O’Donohue writes: “The Bible says that no one can see God and live. In a transferred sense, no person can see himself and live. All you can ever achieve is a sense of your soul.”

When you see your own self for the first time without the veneer of self-indulgence and ego, the old stereotypical you dies, and the soul in you emerges. To be reborn is the recurring theme in many belief systems. To see your own self as you truly are is also a theme in literature. In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka wrote a nightmarish tale about a man who wakes up one morning to discover he is an insect—a metaphor for seeing you own self as you are without the veil of illusion, which is a pillar of reincarnation and Buddhism.

I received yet another email junk solicitation to buy art from a wholesale type operation. A sidebar on their website lists all the bestsellers, beginning with Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Stone Pine by Claue Monet, and so on.

Why bother? A reproduction of an original masterpiece is like faking an orgasm.

Here is some of their ad copy worth noting.

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