March 9

Art is not linear. Neither is the artist’s life, but we forget that. We try to “plan” our life and “plan” our career—as if we could. We also try to plan our growth. This means transformation catches us by surprise. The notion that we can control our path is pushed on us by advertisements and by books and by experts who promise us we can learn to control the uncontrollable. And yet, experience teaches that life, and especially life in the arts, is as much about mystery as it is about mastery. To be successful we must learn to follow not the leader but our own inner leadings, the “inspiration” artists have acknowledged through the centuries. “Something” is telling us to make art. We must trust that something.