Tom Waits. Brilliant to some. Painful to others. I lean in the brilliant direction. This line, from his song “what’s he building?”, has stuck with me. I’ve been thinking about it lately as I’ve been focusing deeply on an art project that will show later in the year and mused about my choice not to engage with the social media platforms where I shared my work previously. This has included musing about website updates as well. As an modern artist this sharing can be important. It lets interested people know what’s going on or even that ‘something’ continues to go on. As a modern emerging artist I have worried about my lack of connectivity through these mediums. Some days it feels necessary to connect in this way in order to be a “successful” artist. These social media choices can bolster certain doubts like “Perhaps I’m doing it wrong” and “Perhaps I will ultimately fail as an artist”

But another part of me revels in the build. There’s power in the curiosity. What’s he building in there? Even more curious is that as I build out this project, I have the same thoughts. What am I building in there? It’s constantly unraveling and unveiling itself, so much so that I begin to feel that I’m not necessarily in charge of the work but instead am one of many energies creating this work. My interaction with creating is often like this, where I have no real idea exactly where the journey will end only that it feels necessary to do it. This pull is so powerful it has lead me to calling myself a full time artist in order to make the time I need to fulfill my obligation in this “collaborative” process.

Who are these other players? Well that’s the beautiful mystery isn’t it?

What are they building in there?