A Letter to Every Artist Living

In the Age of Social Media:

Have you ever looked at your social media accounts and felt hurt, unloved, useless, foolish?

If so, you are not alone. You are completely normal.

Feeling unappreciated or unseen is easier than ever today. Open any app and voila! Instantly you can feel your life reduced to a number. The conversation goes like: There’s gotta be a mistake. I’ll check another app. Only 4 views? How is that possi… 20 likes? Are you kidding me, this is gold. No views?! What? Wait, is death by “no views” a thing because I’m dying.

If you’ve ever been in that loop, the way out is to remember this truth. You never went into your recording booth, or sat at your desk or went to the studio for anything other than to satisfy your need and longing to create. Your first urge to go ‘in there’ had nothing to do with applause.

Stop and think about the power behind that urge, and the ancient source from which you are drawing. You pulled notes out of thin air and arranged them to be sung over and over. Those are your notes. You figured out how to mold silence into sound. You created a character as real as any human baby. Like a god, you grabbed cosmic dust and built a whole world that other people can now visit. You found a feeling in the ethers, mixed it with a feeling in your gut, maybe added some paint, or charcoal, or clay and created a new feeling that does something to your heart. You danced footprints on the earth in a way no one has ever done it before, and you could do it again, because you choreographed something in YOU.

You did this.

All by yourself.

By creating your creations, you loved your spirit and nurtured your soul better than anyone ever could. In fact, you are the only person who could do it. And now, you need to just remember to say, “Thank You” to yourself. You answered your casting call and you got the part.

Only one heart emoji is ever needed on any of your work. It’s the one you give yourself.

Rosemary Watson