The War of Art

The War of Art is one of the best books I have ever read which dispenses with the clichés and gives a much more honest view of what it takes to be a Profession Artist or Writer.

I was speaking to a woman I met at a WordPress event. I knew she was a WP developer, and at a previous WordCamp, she had talked about the incredible support she received from the WP community while battling a serious illness.

Over lunch, I learned that she had been a lifelong artist, a painter working in the very challenging medium of watercolor with a photorealist style. Now that she was recovering, she wanted to get back to her art but feared her hand/eye skills would never be the same. A situation like this is quite different from the solely internal psychological struggles any creator faces.

A favorite book came to mind. The War of Art (no, not the Art of War), takes many of the clichés about art and dumps them on their head. The woman I was speaking to was obviously very determined, she had survived her medical struggle, taken some time to grieve skills that may have been diminished, and she was ready to go to battle again.

Here are is an image, a sort of map summary of Steven Pressfield’s book. I first read it two years ago, and my 20-something studio assistant also found it evocative. Driving home from the conference, listening again to the Audible version what ‘spoke’ to me was the part living like a PRO,  rather than an AMATEUR when it comes to working on your art.

I have been struggling with my compulsion to work on many ideas at once. Not just ideas, but medium as different as 3d Printing is from writing. Tried not to beat myself up too much, and ‘The Pro’ paradigm was also a road toward getting things done by taking my Art(s) seriously.