Lately I’ve been struggling with a fundamental issue of the creative world — a block. Call it writer’s block, artist’s block, or blogger’s block, I would sit down to write and write nothing. Yet my idea journal was busting at the seams.

Sound familiar? I think we’ve all been there.

I was lamenting over my issue, trying to come up with a grand return to my bog after my hiatus, when I read a passage that struck the depths of my soul:

“The artist talks to himself out loud. If what he has to say is significant, others hear & are affected.” - Edmund Snow Carpenter, They Became What They Beheld

Artists create art for themselves and if it touches the lives of others, the artist will find people standing around them waiting to hear more. It’s the basic truth behind the success of philosophers we should all be familiar with — Aristotle, Socrates, Plato.

I think artist’s block hits us when we try to create content for the sake of pleasing everyone but ourselves. I know it’s wrong. You know it’s wrong. Yet we become a prisoner to it anyway until a message like this grabs us by the shoulders and shakes us back into our passion.

This passage struck a cord in me and has me practicing the art of art itself — I will blog about what I want, not about what I think people want.

I don’t blog to create a mass readership. I blog because it entertains me and provides an outlet for my need to write, create, and share. It’s so great that you’re here.

And with that said, I’m back!

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