I just sent an email to an art friend of mine commiserating about our fear that our art doesn't say anything, might not be good enough and a host of other fears that really don't have a place in the creative process. What does it really matter if someone else (or even we ourselves) think it's not good enough? What IS "good enough"? And good enough for what? We don't make it for other people. We make it because we have to. Because we can't not make it.
I sent him this email quoting Martha Graham, saying that I used that same quote to start my blog, this blog, that I've been dragging my feet about publishing. Hesitating and questioning and doubting for the very same reason I've been dragging my feet about a new series of drawings which I have been talking about but not doing... I'm afraid. Afraid it's not that mythical undefined "good enough". Well if I'd taken the Martha Graham's quote to heart, swallowed it down, breathed it in and consumed the flesh of it, I'd have published this before now. I suppose today my hunger is more than physical maybe it's metaphorical as well. Today I publish. Here's the Martha Graham quote:
"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
from The Life and Work of Martha
