There is a myth about how artists make their best work when they are dysfunctional or suffering.

It’s a vicious and dangerous concept to imagine artists are those that stay up late at night, or are suffering, and from there they produce their best work.

Indeed, there is good work that comes from a transformation from suffering into art. But that seems to perpetuate an idea that ones best work comes from a continuation of suffering.

I think that my best work is produced when I’ve had time to relax and am in a good state of mind. That allows me to have the motivation to work through what I want to create, even when it’s not going so well.

Having a vision to what I want to create is something critical to making and fulfilling that goal. The motivation is the means in which to achieve that vision.

Then, there are the other days when nothing comes to mind. What seems to work is to do anything that can get those creative juices going. For instance, I will make a sketch of something in a notebook. That allows me to have the feeling of accomplishing something which can help to lead to momentum another day.

I like to call myself a “completionist”, borrowing from the idea of video gaming and finishing the game to completion. If I start on a work, I like to complete it.

There are of course some pieces which I started and never completed. But it’s the vision of what I want to create that carries me through.

Sometimes it doesn’t work out very well, but that allows me to hope for another day, when I can fulfil what I wanted to create to begin with.

Each piece, then becomes not a failure, but a stepping stone to the next finished piece.