Why artists often have a hard time. Worthwhile art originates from seeking surprise from beyond one's conscious mind, and this stirs the unconscious. A stirred unconscious needs managing if it is not to cause trouble or be anti-social. It is tempting for a serious artist to think that he or she should never stop creating. It is arguable whether they themselves then are a work of art, or something to avoid viewing or listening to! The axiom that until one truly loves oneself that others will not be drawn to love one's art applies to "the art" as a whole (art+life). Then the paradox can be sorted. The combined work that is rich artistic expansion coupled with correctly understood therapeutic integration is best understood not only as an activation (positive and negative) of unconscious joy, freedom,.. (& also pain, trauma, .......) but also as an opportunity to gain height and context in making the fruits of the experience ordinary and diplomacy (in the social - not political sense) making. That height is necessary if one is not to fall prey to the disturbancies that stirring the unconscious can bring in its wake. Greater conscious awareness is like a balancing wheel that can prevent loss of perspective when life energies can get choppy. Detachment is very important in any art-form. The distance we can obtain by having a looser more playful relationship with artistic work can help us with being political (in the positive sense) with others, in turn helping with dealing with financial matters and business agreements, and not ending up in heavy situations or emotions that are out of control or explosive. It is very easy to place the blame for one's difficulties on society or big business (not to say they are anywhere near perfect!) and neglect the tending to one's own conditioning that likely set in in early life. If we can resolve and heal the blinkers and pain we fell prey to at a young age, perhaps our art will be much more appealing? If not, then those conditionings could haunt us in our ineffectiveness in dealing with others. About intensity: artists often do not have an off switch for intensity. They identify with that intensity as a constant way of being. Consequently they become too serious or too difficult to share space with another fruitfully or joyfully, and presence and lightheartedness is lost. This is an anti-social energy that can be their undoing (although perhaps operating below the surface, others can notice it). Such compulsive intensity is not a friend to oneself, and certainly prevents one from fully looking after one's state of mind, however exhilirating one might think such intensity is. Intensity, when it is just one tool of many in the toolbox is then a more conscious muscle. Effortless expression can then complement it appropriately. There is a history of adverse associations with art, such as suffering, starving, being misunderstood, being ahead of one's time. All of these it seems to me invite a more balanced possibility of art being an integral part of a full flowering individual's life. To be truly joyful, there is a transcendence of one's self, and that is difficult to achieve if one is addicted to suffering or to intensity. Perhaps the most fulfilled and accomplished human beings are ones who appreciate and care for themselves, as much or even more than for their work. Summary - Artists' difficulties: intensity, unmanaged stirrings, lack of height on or detachment from one's negative emotional charge, blaming externals for problems, addiction to suffering, lack of direct self-fulfillment
