This short snip from a letter Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo, in October of 1883, might be the best piece of advice that any working or aspiring artist could receive. And it most likely applies to any other field of endeavor.
I can’t speak for the experience of most artists but, concerning my own work and abilities, I travel through an internal landscape with soaring peaks of great confidence that often plummet into deep valleys of doubt. One moment and I am high on a peak with a seemingly endless view that shows me all sorts of ways forwards. But in the bat of an eye I find myself in a deep and dark ravine with no indications of any path on which I can climb out.
I begin to doubt my abilities, begin to wonder if I have been the fool in thinking myself an artist. Ideas that just a day or so ago felt special and ready to burst out from me suddenly seem dull and lifeless. Inspiration dissipates like a mist in the sunlight.
But, as the decades doing this have taught, the answer always comes in working.
Empty the mind, push doubts to the side and pick up a brush.
Make a mark. Then another and another. Let it lead you somewhere, let it be the path out of that valley.
Work. Just work.
It just now occurs to me that there may be a reason the common phrase is “work of art.”
You know, I never even gave that thought. Perhaps you’re right.
Like you say, you can overthink something. Like Rebok sez, “Just do it.”
I think that is why I paint at all, because to do it I have push all that other stiff away, empty my mind and pick up my brush. It’s like going into this timeless space of doing rather than thinking. Thank-you for a very interesting post!