[This post, written by Gretchen Peters, is part of a series of letters from established artists to young musicians. Gretchen is a Nashville-based recording artist and Grammy-nominated songwriter. She’s released a number of great solo albums, and also composed hits for Martina McBride, Faith Hill, Etta James, Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, George Strait, Anne Murray, Neil Diamond, and Bryan Adams.]
When I was a kid I wouldn’t have called myself an artist. I just had a profound itch to make things – songs, poems, paintings – anything. People call it self-expression but it’s really self-discovery. It’s a way of figuring out how you feel and what you think. A way of understanding yourself in the context of the greater world. You don’t become an artist. You are one or you’re not. If you are, you’re either creating or you’re not creating. Both have their drawbacks; but while creating is frustrating, difficult, scary, occasionally exhilarating and often humiliating, not creating is to doubt one’s own reason for being. The choice is clear, then; to stay alive the artist needs to create like the shark needs to swim.
These are some things …read more
Source: The DIY Musician