the vision can be delulu
but if you keep on the journey, you will see it
Over the past three weeks, I’ve been riding a roller coaster of creative waves and energy since the release of Love Ain’t Neutral. It’s been beautiful to experience, stressful, fascinating, but honestly, it’s the excitement I feel around rediscovering my previous work, alongside creating new work that has me super stoked on where this goes from here.
I’m blown away and grateful that Love Ain’t Neutral speaks to people. But that’s my finding beauty in the darkness era and it makes me ask the question:
What about my work that looked directly at all the Light?
You have to believe in what you’re doing to put it out there. And that’s something that truthfully I’ve struggled with. In earlier iterations of my creative life, I sought validation. Somehow I pushed past that and there’s something to be said about seeing a goal come to fruition, even if you have to go out and make it happen for yourself.
There are countless artists, brilliant, talented creatives, who didn’t live in this technologically connected era, who were locked up by the gatekeepers and the limited views of there being only one way to do things.
Yet, here we are, still on the journey, still on the charts, taking the steps to get in brick and mortars. That right there is mind-boggling!
All that and Independent.
It’s wild.
I came up in at a time where self-published, independent work was frowned upon. TBH, it might still be in some circles. And honestly, that’s okay.
It’s okay because some people aren’t with change and as an artist, the job is to create and not judge. If someone doesn’t want to give my work a shot because it doesn’t check a box they thinks needs to be checked, it’s not for them.
But what this experience of continuing to create, to refine, to study and practice other mediums, to consume art in all its forms endlessly, has helped me to be a healthier person and I am just grateful that I get the chance to experience the work hitting on an emotional level with people.
I’m in awe and truly thankful for and that takes me to the title of this.
I see the vision. For someone who deals in words, I don’t have the words to articulate the feeling of what I mean by that but I’ll try. It’s like I’ve worked to level up in the game and gone through all of these different stages and have acquired the experience, the skills, and the tools needed to embark on the next chapter.
One of the most exciting unfoldings is the opportunity to breathe Life into new work. As I’ve gone in to update older covers and review past books, I’ve had thoughts on how to reflow The Maxims of Delta and The Dream Pusher in particular so that they Flow more completely because in reading them today, the narrative is out of order.
And I have the freedom to do that because I am independet.
And it’s okay to “stage new productions” because I wrote them at different periods, and while the subject matter is still relevant, how it’s packaged can help bring it to new Life and eyes.
“To make stuff, you gotta be delusional.” - Tyler the Creator
This quote might sound relatable to some and off to others. But considering that he has sold over 7 million albums and 41 million digital singles, he must be on to something.
To storytell deeply through art, you have to be a little delulu. You have to push beyond all the inner doubt and the external criticism while doing your best not to let the external criticism devolve into intrusive thoughts.
It’s a mess at times, but the best creative expression can arise while sorting through all of that.
Soul, what do you want to write about?
Or paint?
Or draw?
Or create?
Go for it!
Cause you might just be surprised what you find out about yourself along the way.