Frustration Fuels The Artist
You’re frustrated.
Frustrated with the way this works.
Frustrated with how things are.
Frustrated with .
Good. Frustration fuels the artist.
Frustration causes the artist to look at something and go, “I’m going to change that.” It’s something that can be used – not as something to whine about or to use as an excuse, but as something to help you grow. To push past your boundaries and challenge the status quo. A clever artist knows how to use frustration to change something and make it into something even better.
Creating art is hard (in case you hadn’t noticed). Doing great things is hard. I love this quote from President Kennedy about the Apollo program:
“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is on that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win…”
We as artists chose this path because it’s hard. We pour our passions, our ideals, our dreams into the things we create. But sometimes that’s not enough. Passions lose steam and dreams get lost when the work gets too hard. When that happens, we can get very frustrated – and that can either destroy you….or become the greatest asset you’ve ever had as an artist. The men and women of the Apollo program undoubtedly became frustrated at times. But they chose to use that to push them forward.
Frustration is a fuel because it requires you to change what you’re doing. It becomes:
I’m frustrated with the way this works so I’ll change it.
I’m frustrated with how things are so I’l change them.
I’m frustrated with so I’ll change it.
Sometimes, that’s you changing it. Other times, it’s you changing you. Either way, it’s change. Change = growth. And that’s what I love about frustration. As Martha Graham put it:
[There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
That may sound frustrating, but that’s okay. Why? Because if you’re not satisfied with what you’re doing, you’ll find a way to do it better, and through that, you’ll do something outside your comfort zone that you might not have tried before.
“Lost in Frustration” – Marcus Waltermark
The frustration you feel does have a purpose. Frustration makes you intolerant of the current status quo and forces you to push past the boundaries you’ve set for yourself.
