…is to lay yourself bare.

It is impossible to express on any level that will connect with others, without breaking off at least a tiny piece of oneself. The really great artists sacrifice a lot; large pieces of themselves are surrendered with every offering. It’s no wonder some of them literally disappear from the world as they know it.

To be an artist, you need to be courageous. You have to not care what others will think of you, or worry if you will shock, or keep imagining what your mother (or your granny, or your aunt, or your next door neighbour, or your ex-boyfriend’s teenage nephew’s teacher you once worked with), would say if they could see, read, hear, touch, your stuff.

Oh, man…! Better just to be quiet, keep your head down, stay out of the line of fire, don’t call attention to yourself, live a quiet life.

But wait a minute. Henry David Thoreau wrote: Men live lives of quiet desperation. The quote is usually misquoted with an added: ..and go to the grave with the song still in them. Okay, it’s a misquote, but I think this addition follows the sentiment of the first part of the sentence most aptly. Not all desperation comes out of not being able to express oneself artistically, but surely a significant part of of it does.

For to express oneself artistically is not just to put stuff out there. It is to discover, to find, to get to know, what we are really all about for our own selves. Creating art and putting it out there is a journey of self-discovery. Without artistic expression of some kind, you would just never really know who you are as a person. From the inside. It would be like living your entire life with a stranger. What a missed opportunity. You are dead a long time, so why be afraid to look in on, and say hello to yourself?

Inspirational folklore and advertising slogans are heavy on this theme precisely because it’s something that’s close to all our hearts. Some examples are, Carpe diem, Just do it, YOLO, Better to have tried and failed… It seems more than a few people have pondered this dilemma of hanging back, staying in the dark safety of the wings, as opposed to bursting out into the bright lights of the stage, potentially exposing themselves to shame and ridicule. The human condition calls us to express ourselves, dares us to share our contributions with others, but it’s not an easy thing to do, which explains the various exhortations to plucking up the courage.

So, what are we afraid of? Why would we rather hide, not go forward, and risk missing so much? Perhaps it’s the scale of the entrance that frightens some. Perhaps baby steps are required. We will eventually get there, bit by teensy bit. But if we are to take the advice offered so universally, perhaps the best way to do it is to stop thinking so much, and just take the plunge, like a swimmer heading into the surf. What happens next might just be delightful.

Disclaimer: Not all people need to express themselves artistically, and for them, clearly the quiet desperation would not be connected with stifled artistic desire…