December 26

Artists of all stripes tend to equate difficulty with virtue and ease with slumming. We do not lean into our ease and enjoy the ride of our gift. Instead, we make firm resolves to work on our areas of difficulty. We call this improving ourselves—okay, sometimes we do improve a wobbly area, but if we do not practice the joy of using our talents where they fall easily, we rob ourselves of self-expression. The “self ” has a few things it “selfishly” enjoys—and it is dangerous, as an artist, to ignore these natural affections and predilections.