do you think great artists can only make great art while they're in pain?

there's a liminal space, between pain and suffering, and that's where I sit. this is the space that I come to create. this place north of despair and west of heartbreak, slightly off the beaten path but with the city skyline still in view over my left shoulder. this is the space where I feel.

sometimes, I wish I was heartbroken. or in love, or something. give me a reason to feel, a reason to cry. give me a reason to write poetry, to write love songs, to feel the rain on my skin. Do you think great artists can only make great art while they're in pain? i miss feeling alive.

I wish that I could put my feelings onto paper but I am not the kind of artist who can simultaneously think and feel.

when i feel, there are many places i can go. my liminal space is one of them, but its a difficult place to find and an even harder place to stay. my mind moves faster than i can write, and extracting coherent thoughts from my brain is like picking shards of glass out of rotten flesh. i shoot past the liminal space and curl up on the couch, enveloped in a cocoon of misery. or i take a wrong left turn and end up with glitter on my skin, sweating and swearing in a bed that isn't mine but somehow feels like it is.

this is no way to live. it's not sustainable. so you have to fill the well with something else. pain feels good sometimes because its an excuse to feel something, anything, but you remember great art. you remember what its like to hug your friends and sit in the sun and to feel alive in every way. you remember the sea, the sky, and the stars. you know where home is. you are in pain, but this is not all you are. great artists do not draw from pain, they draw from what makes them remember that they are alive. xx