Ulysses - good luck with your journey! Keeping the space of uncertainty is uncomfortable but embrace it. I am so glad to be touch by your presence and artistry.
I’m nowhere near the stage of life you are in currently but living my early 20s I guess I’m predisposed to relate to any existential crisis.
Once the emancipatory and honeymoon period that is the discovery of photography started to fade, I’ve grown to understand doubts and risks are inescapable. Not only in the making of a work, but also the path leading you to the position that will allow you to work and exist as an artist. There is only blur and eventually a leap of faith. (To complement this personal blurb of paraphrased wisedom, reading Kierkegaard’s “Either/Or” and biographies from any artists really can help in these phases. Reminds me to embrace the anxiety, the same way I do when reading you)
Thanks for your refreshing honesty. Looking forward to more of it and whatever else you have in mind.
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being" from Milan Kundera and "All Men are Mortal" from Simone de Beauvoir. Kundera starts with the premise that the fugacity of a life lived once may actually provide relief while Beauvoir starts with the precise inverse, the absence of mortality. Both should do the trick for an existential read :)
Hey Ulysses. Thank you for the honesty. Whatever decision you make, just know that you ARE a great artist and photographer already. Can’t see what’s installed in this newsletter.
Being at life’s crossroads is always a challenge. It sounds like you have already gone down the money path—the quest for; security, significance and growth. What’s missing is love and connection—which is your art.
Logical and rational people always choose the first path, probablely because they have heard artists don’t make money—and they are right, the bulk of artists don’t make money. But artists do have love and connection—the artistic core for their creativity—without it, they will die. They are connected to their art, they love their work, and they are always learning.
I should have stayed as an artist (sculptor and painter) beyond the age of 17. I wouldn’t have been so miserable clinging on to survival mode to raise a family. 44 years later, I have found art again—and I’m happy again.
Hearing you—stay in the world of art—who knows, you’ll be surprised!! Significance and growth will follow.
First of all, thank you for your honesty and a glimpse at your journey so far. It’s helped ease my mind a little bit because I too am in a somewhat similar situation - in the middle of my career as a graphic designer starting to take off in the field I’m working in but at the same time I’m in a dilemma of not having the mental energy and space to focus on what I truly want to do and excel in - illustration/digital art for games/animation. At times I feel that little progress is better than no progress at all but so many factors weigh me down and hold me back from taking the plunge, like the intense competition in the field and lack of opportunities for it where I live
It’s very frustrating to be stuck in the box where I can’t do much to achieve the dream I see myself in, while fearing the option to go freelance again (bc I too failed at it at one point due to lack of self discipline) or actually study something in that field to get a head start. I’ve been feeling lonely in the sense that I may probably be the only one unable to figure out how to reach those milestones. And like you said, it definitely is like mindfuck.
Ulysses - good luck with your journey! Keeping the space of uncertainty is uncomfortable but embrace it. I am so glad to be touch by your presence and artistry.
I’m nowhere near the stage of life you are in currently but living my early 20s I guess I’m predisposed to relate to any existential crisis.
Once the emancipatory and honeymoon period that is the discovery of photography started to fade, I’ve grown to understand doubts and risks are inescapable. Not only in the making of a work, but also the path leading you to the position that will allow you to work and exist as an artist. There is only blur and eventually a leap of faith. (To complement this personal blurb of paraphrased wisedom, reading Kierkegaard’s “Either/Or” and biographies from any artists really can help in these phases. Reminds me to embrace the anxiety, the same way I do when reading you)
Thanks for your refreshing honesty. Looking forward to more of it and whatever else you have in mind.
Cheers
Do you have any other books you recommend? You're very right with this comment, and thank you for the insight too :)
Sure !
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being" from Milan Kundera and "All Men are Mortal" from Simone de Beauvoir. Kundera starts with the premise that the fugacity of a life lived once may actually provide relief while Beauvoir starts with the precise inverse, the absence of mortality. Both should do the trick for an existential read :)
Hey Ulysses. Thank you for the honesty. Whatever decision you make, just know that you ARE a great artist and photographer already. Can’t see what’s installed in this newsletter.
Being at life’s crossroads is always a challenge. It sounds like you have already gone down the money path—the quest for; security, significance and growth. What’s missing is love and connection—which is your art.
Logical and rational people always choose the first path, probablely because they have heard artists don’t make money—and they are right, the bulk of artists don’t make money. But artists do have love and connection—the artistic core for their creativity—without it, they will die. They are connected to their art, they love their work, and they are always learning.
I should have stayed as an artist (sculptor and painter) beyond the age of 17. I wouldn’t have been so miserable clinging on to survival mode to raise a family. 44 years later, I have found art again—and I’m happy again.
Hearing you—stay in the world of art—who knows, you’ll be surprised!! Significance and growth will follow.
Good luck Ulysses, you deserve to succeed ,remain passionate in your endeavors and "to thine own self be true". All will be well for you.
Hello!
First of all, thank you for your honesty and a glimpse at your journey so far. It’s helped ease my mind a little bit because I too am in a somewhat similar situation - in the middle of my career as a graphic designer starting to take off in the field I’m working in but at the same time I’m in a dilemma of not having the mental energy and space to focus on what I truly want to do and excel in - illustration/digital art for games/animation. At times I feel that little progress is better than no progress at all but so many factors weigh me down and hold me back from taking the plunge, like the intense competition in the field and lack of opportunities for it where I live
It’s very frustrating to be stuck in the box where I can’t do much to achieve the dream I see myself in, while fearing the option to go freelance again (bc I too failed at it at one point due to lack of self discipline) or actually study something in that field to get a head start. I’ve been feeling lonely in the sense that I may probably be the only one unable to figure out how to reach those milestones. And like you said, it definitely is like mindfuck.