Making Good Art

Okay, I'm back. I spent most of yesterday with that fuzzy, unfocused feeling in my head that I always get after a good cry--it lasted longer than usual, but I'm mostly recovered now. My dad's flying back to Taiwan in a couple of days to be with the rest of his family. There's not much I can do from here.

I also remembered another writer's advice from 2004 on what to do when Things Are Bad: Make Good Art.

I've learned over the years that everything is more or less the same amount of work, so you may as well set your sights high and try and do something really cool.

There are other people around who can do the mediocre, meat-and-potatoes work that anybody can do. So let them do that. You make the art that only you can make. You tell the stories only you can tell.

As a solution to various problems you may encounter upon the way, let me suggest this:

Make Good Art.

It's very simple. But it seems to work. Life fallen apart? Make good art. True love ran off with the milkman? Make good art. Bank foreclosing? Make good art.

Keep moving, learn new skills. Enjoy yourself.

-- Neil Gaiman's Journal: What I said at the Harveys

So here I am, making the best art that I and only I can make. It's what I do. It's what I live for.

~CKL