DRAFT: The last 4 years have brought me firmly to a point of being called to build something meaningful for myself and others.  This experience has opened my eyes to issues of mental health – and as an extension, physical health – and has made me more understanding, open-minded, and compassionate.  I want to help dissolve the stigma around mental health and addiction and create a community of people who gather to make art in the spirit of health, learning, having a good time, and finding their authentic voice.  I’m curious about people’s experiences with pain and struggle and I’m curious about all the many activities and ideologies that help to heal them. I am drawn to the common themes that arise and making connections between research, faith, and people’s experiences. I want to learn to speak a universal language of empathy and healing that is not exclusionary or off-putting; not preachy, just accessible. I want to feel less intimidated by struggling people who have their guard up because I feel for them the most; they most need to be heard.

Art process…performance… music. That is where the power is…in the making and observing the making. The product is only the memory. Just objects to get kicked around if not cherished and displayed (so devastating to focus so much on the product when it is such a gamble whether it will really be valued in that state). We focus too much on the product of art, and products in general. The vulnerability and impressionability and learning are in the process. You don’t get vulnerability out of an end product the way you do with in progress work. It is brave to make art in the presence of others.

We must do what we feel compelled to do; work through things in our own special way.  You don’t make art for other people, trying to follow trends and read minds, continually diminishing the quality of your work just to make a few bucks; that is not true and healthy art.  You make art because it is therapeutic for yourself.  That authentic work is the work that will naturally mean something to many others, as well.  They may not want to buy it – or even have the money to buy it – but it will mean something.  That is what art is supposed to be.  Don’t try so hard.  Just work through your shit–be raw, and real; or follow your passions–as unusual as they may be.  And, then, be bold enough share it.  With no expectations.  You may never know the impact your work has on others, but that has to be okay with you.  The emotional energy you worked through will be evident as the transformation, healing, or joy you experienced radiates out to others.

OR, said in a broader, more transferrable way:  we must do what we feel compelled to do, work through things in our own special way…don’t do things for other people…do things because it is therapeutic for yourself, and that authentic work will naturally be of value to others