A Poem of Our Passion

To my fellow artists,

you know that feeling that you get when you start a new piece?
that feeling of excitment?
the longing to get started,
that fire in your heart,
burning passion.
your soul is building up to surge forward
and pour all your energy,
physical,
mental,
emotional
into what you are about to do.
you know,
are prepared for all the work ahead.

finally all of your planning,
careful preparation,
that,
even unknowningly you have done.
subconsiciously readying yourself for the feat you are about to attempt.
every project,
no matter the size or medium.
you are preparing for the exhaustion that you will feel,
but the love that you will pour onto your base,
as an artist,
you are ready for the path ahead.

halfway through,
you start to feel the exhaustion.
you begin to be irritated,
start to doubt your vision,
wondering if you will ever finish.

you start regretting your decision to start,
and hope that the end is near.
you search for imput and critique from others,
wondering if there is anything you should add,
change,
or just for reassurance.

you are tired,
but then dig deep to find that passion.
you tell yourself,
as a reminder,
how much of yourself you are letting the world see.
showing your heart in the piece you create,
you use that frustration,
and exhaustion to power your way through the
repetitve and tedious details that you wish
you didnt have to add.
and remember that you are halfway there.
halfway to completing your vision.

you remember that one of your goals is to create,
but not just create the product,
but the emotion that you feel,
you hope others will feel when they see it.
you hope for them,
to feel that raw emotion of
frustation and passion
that you feel in making this piece come
to existence.

you may pause and gaze upon what you have done,
and know,
what you are creating,
will make the gazer feel some kind of emotion.
Wether it be anger, or saddness
or peace.

they will feel something.
and you will be furthur fulfilled.

Then you reach the near end.
Only a few more details to add.
and you start to panic,
have i forgotten anything?
messed up in some way?
the doubts start flooding in.
so you close your eyes,
step away from the piece,
and remember your original vision.

and you know what has to be done.
you ask onlookers to tell you what they see,
as a different objective.
and you head back to work.
your almost there.

you make sure to give every opportunity for improvement.
ask gazers over and over for imput.
knowing that when you add the last detail.
you will never touch it again.

you look forward to that closure.
Look forward to see what you have done.

Then you place the last brush stroke to the painting,
the last touches to your sculpture.
And you find a place on it,
that you choose for one purpose and one purpose only.
to close the project for good.
After this,
you will never go back,
never go back and improve or change.
you are nearly exhausted.
Yet you have one last finishing touch.
You find your place,
and you place your name on your work.
Once it is finished.
You are done.

You feel that burning in your heart cool.
The fire fade to a flickering,
and eventually go out on this project.
Your soul has been laid upon the ground before
the gazers.
and a piece of your heart will ever remain there.
It will remain there as a reminder to yourself,
and others what you have accomplished.
What you have done.

You are now emotionally, aristically, physically exhausted.
you know that you may start a new project tomorrow, or today,
but you will never go back to this one.

As an artist,
it is your duty to decide when a piece is done.
You will have a feeling.
And you will know,
that if you ever did go back,
you would regret it forever.
Because that would be breaking a promise,
a promise that you make to yourself,
when you sign your name in a spot that you chose.

As well,
you have every right to stand up for yourself,
when others do not understand the term,
Exhausted.
remember to remind them that every piece that you create,
is a gift,
you are giving them a piece of your soul.
A piece of your heart.

You have a right to remind them that:
Art pieces are labors of love.
Hard work, and dedication.
Passion.
Fire in our hearts,
it drives us to create.
it is a gift that we give to them,
give to the world.
we dont have to
but we do.
And we have a great deal of pride in our accomplishments.

But what you must also remind them is:
All gifts can be taken back.
much of the time,
our gifts are given in some form of grace.
We can take them back,
but our hard work will have been wasted,
and our hearts will be broken.
Our passion will come back in a surge,
but it will be curbed to anger,
and frustration.
And we mentally make a promise to ourselves
to never work that hard,
or give such grace
to that person ever again.

In regular terms,
this means that we have a right to hold a grudge.

this is my frustration with non artists,
To My Fellow Artists,
We are a Passionate people,
Never lose sight of that,
Love your friends creatively,
and stay true to your own self.
~~
----Dreya

Author's Note

opinions are appreciated...and and spelling errors please let me know and I'll change them when I can. Thanks

Reviews

[tekphobik]

A wonderful piece on the rigors of creation. You've inspired a concept for a poem I should write that would be complementary to this piece. I'll get back to you.