The beautiful illusion of procrastination masquerading as the pursuit of artistic excellence.
By M.M. Dewil
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In a recent letter Nick Cave wrote ‘… art is the noble and necessary rejoinder to the sins of the world.’
I agree.
And as such the artist hasn’t the luxury to wait for inspiration to strike. Rather, he or she is duty bound to work with the same determination of the influencer shilling for followers, the same ruthlessness of the billionaire chasing money, the same drive of the politician scrambling for power.
As a rejoinder to the sins of the world, art is not a hobby; it’s a necessity. It’s not a weekend indulgence but a war on the front line against the vast armies of crass ignorance. The pen is mightier than the sword but the unpicked-up pen is limp and as ineffectual as the unmanned bazooka.
Of course this fighting language and this earnest cause doesn’t have to suffocate the nuance of our craft. When they shout we can whisper. When they are crude we can be subtle. The artist needn’t be a warrior, he or she just needs to be an artist. But a real one, one that is an artist on a weekday, on laundry day, on revolution day, on prayer day, on every day. That’s our job. Because if one fine morning inspiration does happen to come and she finds our writing desk empty, no-one standing behind the easel, the un-sat upon chair in front of the piano, then what? The muse is fleeting. She won’t wait. And who knows when she will return.
It’s OK, though, for us to acknowledge that what we do is hard, this revealing to the world the inner parts of us. It’s true the accountant doesn’t have to expose this. But what to do? The artist become the accountant? It won’t work. Many of us have tried to do other things and while at times we may have been able to get through the days, we knew inside, This is not me. So, yes our artistic nature may make us vulnerable to feelings of humiliation but I propose the question… is that such a bad thing?
In my time in the world I have come to learn that few things have killed my joy or caused me more suffering than my pride, a false ego that says I am not a fallible person. And the corollary, when in a state of humility and gratitude I have found a satisfaction that has so often eluded me.
The vulnerability that the artist risks by exposing the world to his or her art is not such a bad thing. The secret here is that it is in fact a very special thing because it is an honest thing. And in a world full of posers, that honesty has a value that people intuitively respond to. It’s often the very thing that makes art good: the honest expression of the fallible human.
Yes it’s a risk to be honest, but the rewards are great too.
Besides you have to be you.
Which brings us back to waiting, not for Godot, but for our muse who thankfully eventually does come. We wait because we are aware that we’re going to be vulnerable if we put something out there so we bloody well want to make sure it’s good.
And we wait.
And wait.
And then maybe we realize we are waiting too long and we start. And the demons of doubt begin to circle, shame sniggers at us from the corner of our room: “You think that’s good?”
And so we stop and wait some more.
Unfortunately, more often than not we don’t end up putting anything out there at all.
The reality is you get good by doing, not by waiting for the perfect inspiration. Often you have to get through the bad ideas to get to the good ones.
We shouldn’t hide behind some lofty artistic standard in an attempt to never risk vulnerability.
Good judgment comes from experience and experience come from bad judgment.
Muses, wrote Mr Cave, are for losers.
So go out there and make some wonderful mistakes.
Don’t wait.
M.M. Dewil’s debut novel, The Helper, is out June 18, 2024 with Blackstone Publishing. Pre-order your copy here.He lived as a monk in North India for several years before moving to Hollywood to write and direct feature films. He now lives in Alachua, Florida, with his wife, Madhu, and their two boys.