“Most of us have two lives. The life we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two lies Resistance.”
Steven Pressfield knocks IT out of the park in his revolutionary book : “The War of Art”. If you haven’t picked this up yet- well it’s time that you did! It is EPIC. A short read, compact, Yet packing super adrenaline laced power in it’s 163 pages that overflow with pure, inspiring, motivating, creative truths! Clearly Pressfield knows what he is talking about and lucky for us decided to write it down and share it with the world!
Any creative who has not read this art Bible is cheating themselves, because the core message gives us art people the mental tools we need in order to combat, maim, and ultimately kill RESISTANCE! Only then will you be able to pursue your dream, your “Vein of Gold” – as Julia Cameron, author of another artist Bible “The Artists Way”, defines it, in spite of the naysayers, the threats, the enemies of distraction and procrastination attempting to thwart your passion, your path, your power.
DONT. ALLOW. IT.
Pressfield lays it out so clear, so concise, so real. He has lived it, learned it, earned it, and loves it. You will read this book many times, until you get it and then you will read it again just to confirm and inject some needed art plasma into your vein. Of Gold.
Right now I am reading a wonderful memoir by Fernade Olivier, in which she describes her relationship with Picasso, in their early twenties, in Paris, painting in his hole-in-the-wall studio, known now as the Famous Chateau Lavoir, freezing and burning, in Monmartre during the early 1900’s. Talk about resistance! It was an ongoing challenge he fought 24/7 /365! Painting while starving and just barely managing to survive.
For the artist this is an eternal, persisting life story. Whether it be surviving the environment, social 
condemnation, or internal resistance, there will always be some challenge to overcome. The more invasive the artists resistance is, the less he or she paints, dances, writes, photographs, acts, composes! This for the artist can be lethal. Pressman describes this hideous conflict in his book of knowledge, and crystallizes the absolute necessity to detect, defuse, and destroy!
Many artists died by their own hand, while drawn into the abyss of other temptations, gazing into the prism of fame from a distance, the challenge is often to great to overcome and continue to create.
Because it’s NOT an easy path, yet sooooo rewarding in ways that the 9-5’ers can not, will not understand. So it’s cool beyond belief. If you have the Steven Pressman mojo helping you fuel your drive and keep you going, in spite of walls, mountains, waves attempting to obstruct your momentum and prevent you from the personal success and satisfaction that is your destiny!
This is crucial fuel in the Artist Arsenal of dynamite necessary for our propulsion into that exciting world where creativity and resistance are the ying and yang, the oil and water, the yes and no, the dark and light. Resistance does NOT work.
Stephen Pressfield says it best:
” The Enemy is a very good teacher” Artists need to make friends with this enemy, learn from it, and prosper!”
Whenever I visit galleries which is often I find that I spend the most time gazing at a painting sculpture etc. that is the least pretty or beautiful or cute. The ones that capture my interest are either ugly, weird, or just downright confusing. Because yes, it’s true that we all like pretty, but pretty wears off fast, gets old, tired, and empty and we go hungering and thirsting after something heartier, more filling, more substantial. Paintings can be like that. Was Warhol pretty? Picasso was hideous, and Twombly just plain confusing, what about Richter? 
Pretty is Not the Point. It’s the Anti point. helloooooooo
Was not nyc more glam in the dirty scary seventies than it is now in its gentrified sterile prettiness?????? Of course. But the only people who know it are the ones who saw it back when . The millenniums and the gen y ‘s have no clue. As they try to be artists in this uber tech society with the grunge the grit the gory grotesque horror neatly cleaned up and filed down. 
be hidden by sterile perfection. This quality is actually sexier and more interesting than someone who is physically perfect. We see this in the modeling world where top models, like Kate Moss, Turlington, Twiggy, Penelope Tree, or any of the London models made famous during the age of Mary Quant and Piccadilly, during the Hippie Age of Drugs Sex and Rock n Roll, like Verushka, all made their fame and fortune spectacular in their unconventional look. That made them objects of fascination for everyone who wanted to be them, but just did not have that edge, that extra something. And that’s true in the art world as well. Perhaps it’s true in every aspect of life. One needs that Extra Something, the new, different, often irregular, offbeat, crazy, that makes people take notice. Otherwise it’s just same old same old. And that doesn’t make art!
Pretty. A compliment? I think not. More than likely a dismissal. An after thought. A crumb of “let’s pretend”. Who really wants to be pretty? What painting could be worthy of interest if it’s only claim to fame was pretty? Pretty doesn’t go far. It’s merely one step above cute.
Oscar Wilde said “No object is beautiful that under certain conditions will not look ugly”.
Looking at some of the older works of Ny artist Julien Schnabell prints in his book of memories called CV.J. I can’t find one pretty painting. Most are a melange of chaos on a canvas, broken plates, harsh words, confusing images, and muddy colors, and again broken plates! Not your everyday pretty painting. Suzanne Valdon’s bastard son, and sickly alchoholic, Utrillo, was a master of pretty paintings, still sold today as postcards and prints. His images of Montmartre, during the early 1900’s, appeals to the masses today as frame – able, hangable, non disturbing art. Guaranteed to decorate, promised not to disturb. And that’s OK.
“They have to take a chance, everything they do is taking a chance, but they feel so much safer when they take it on something they know to be ugly, vain and stupid.” Ayn Rand
“It’s easy to stand in the crowd, but it takes courage to stand alone” Mahatma Gandhi
There is only One when it comes to the unique individual, who does, acts, creates, lives, in a different spectacular universe far removed from the rest of the rest. Encompassing the Best of the Best.
Van Gogh had it. Michelangelo nailed it. Gertrude Stein invented it. Picasso owned it. Einstein invented it. Warhol flaunted it. Dylan folk singed it. Kerouac wrote it. Neil Cassidy drove it. EE Cummings rhymed it. Billie Holiday sang it. Emerson thought about it. Einstein hypothesized it. Freud analyzed it. Kerouac typed about it.
ONE signifies the pioneer spirit of discovery! It’s revolutionary and life changing in theory and process . Who wants to run in a pack? Who wants to be a sheep when clearly it’s the sheep herder possessing the real power? But it takes guts, perseverance , creativity, solitude ,and self awareness, to separate from the sheep herd, and run alone.
While the world seemed flat to most, for the explorers coming from their unique revolutionary experience of thought they knew that there was another theory waiting to be proven. And prove it they did. But it required charting unknown territories and blasting through the cemented thinking of popular opinion.
Following your dream, passion, fantasy, whatever you want to call it can be a lonely and torturous road. One beset with rejection, poverty, and disappointment. You have to put your Man Pants on if you want to crush it! You have to keep it moving, or you may fall off, never get back on your unique ride towards your individual destiny.
But what’s the alternative?