The Artist Cycle Breakthrough

This Halloween I was in NYC at a Gus Dapperton concert.

He was playing at the Bowery Ballroom, putting on a hella good show.

I went up to the green room after the show to meet Gus and the band and the other entourage folk.

Cool guys.

Anyway, during the show, while to music blared and the lights flashed, I jumped and sang amongst the crowd.

At some moment during the show, the correct amount of drinks and enveloping energy of the room crossed paths with my brain and I thought of it.

I had a mini breakthrough.

One of the problems I struggle with as a creative youth is my failure to focus on projects until completion.

I've been working on forming habits of general consistency.

Example: I've been practicing the guitar every day a) because I've always wanted to learn and b) I'm using it as an opportunity to focus on being consistent with one creative endeavor.

Therefore, it will help build other consistency habits.

I picked up my roommate's guitar October 8th and have played every day except for when I went out of town.

Back to the mini breakthrough.

It was this: why not use my tendency to dabble to my advantage?

It is okay to jump from medium to medium.

BUT the change is to complete the current project before switching mediums.

Start writing a short story: Finish it and publish it.

Feel like painting: paint until you have enough pieces for an opening.

Film idea: write the whole script, make the movie, screen it.

Getting better at guitar: play an open mic.

Etc.

To whatever extent or scale each project is taken to doesn't really matter as long as it is completed.

The cycle is the beginning and finishing of one project at a time.

The term cycle can be the birth of an idea, the planning, the execution, some for of public display, and then repeat.

Or it can be a larger cycle of the smaller cycles.

A movie.

A Novel.

An Album.

An Artshow.

Repeat.

Add or remove mediums as desired.

The aim is completion and display, otherwise dabbling is therapy/wasted creative energy.

Sometimes it takes the right amount of drinks, a musical experience, or time in a place with the right energy, or being with the right people, to have a breakthrough that when realized seems like it should be obvious.

It just takes that change of perspective.