The true artist leads the way because he is the risk taker who casts the light onto the darkness. There is a price to pay for leadership. When the battle is about to begin, any weakness in their field general is the last thing the enlisted men need to see.

To command, you rise above your thoughts and feelings of self-doubt and fear. With your strength to persevere you inspire others to have the courage to engage and rout the enemy—the negative invader—in whatever form they may assume, including the rejection of your work.

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“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer,
to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

—from The Psychology of Science by Abraham H. Maslow

I often read how artists are among a defined group more prone to emotional and mental problems. I challenge this misconception. Art is not the source of angst. An artist who might be grappling with some psychological issue would be doing the same if he were a plumber or a baker.

An “unempowered” artist is not immune to propaganda—even if it is sincere. And, as we come to understand, sincerity is often totally misguided.

Now that hope has again been resold to the American people as if it had substance and meaning, I suggest that each one of us examines hope—which is, ironically, one weak passive word. This is fertile ground for me, and the understanding may be new to you.

Remember the Greek legend of Pandora and the box she was warned not to open? When her curiosity prevailed, she opened it and unleashed all the ills of the world upon mankind. But Pandora opened the box a second time and released hope, which was to heal man’s ills.

If the gods had included well-being in lieu of impotent and deceptive expectation, we could then, as the master had said, all live in fulfillment instead of hope. 

Here is an excerpt from a letter dated September 17, 1882—from 29-year old Vincent van Gogh to his younger brother Theo, an art dealer. Vincent was lucid in both his art and writing. His many letters (a good deal of them to his brother) portray a young man in touch with his circumstances.

Am rather short of colours and other things, but you know how it is—I can vary my work in different ways, and there are always so many things to draw. For the group of figures in the enclosed sketch varies infinitely and requires innumerable separate studies and sketches of each figure, which one must catch quickly in the street. In this way it gradually gets character and vigour.

Recently I made a study of ladies and gentlemen on the beach, a hustling crowd of people. Sooner or later, after some more study, I should love to do drawings for illustrations. Perhaps one thing will result from the other. The main thing is to continue working.

I certainly hope you are well, and that you will write me about yourself and the things which strike you in your surroundings. Adieu, with a handshake.

Yours sincerely,

Vincent

When was the last time you had an unbiased experience, an original thought or a pure feeling?

Social conditioning is so powerful, we can become unaware that this tireless agent of cultural conformity exists—which is its insidious nature. If you can draw upon your childhood, you might recall there was a time when anything was possible, nothing was tainted, and the world was born anew each day. This is also the state of the true artist who dances to his own music; he has overcome the pitfalls and limitations of growing up; he has built up an immunity to the cries and whispers of discontent.

If you feel and think in cliches, how can you do original work?