Is Delusion Required to Create Art?
A conversation with author Mason Currey.
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Dear Reader,
Lately I’ve been devouring any books or podcasts I can find that might affirm my choice to lean deeper into living my life as an artist. Recently, on the recommendation of
I purchased The Creative Act by Rick Rubin and The Practice by Seth Godin. On the first page of The Creative Act is this quote, which I snapped a photo of and sent to my friend .
Mason is the author of Daily Rituals: Women at Work. After I read his book a few years ago I posted about it in my Instagram stories, tagging Mason. We gave each other a follow and have been sending funny or sad art-related quotes and cartoons ever since. I sent the above quote to him because he had just written a Substack about what it takes to get into the right mental space for making art. He asked me if the book was any good and it led us to this conversation about whether or not a person needs to be a little delusional in order to succeed as an artist. You can listen to that conversation below!
This is my first attempt at anything in the realm of a podcast and I’m really excited about it! Be warned, however, that it’s not polished! It starts and ends abruptly, there’s no theme music, etc. But it’s kinda fun and it was the perfect way for me to get my feet wet on the shores of podcasting, which is something I do really want to do. Talking with Mason in this format felt really right. I had suggested our call would only be 15-20 minutes long so I didn’t want to go over that timeline, but I could have talked to him for much longer, and I felt like there were many areas to dig deeper into. I’m excited to line up some longer, more in depth interviews with other creatives and people living non-traditionally.
If you enjoyed my Substack about rejigging your work life balance, you might also enjoy this article in the Atlantic.
But even as the work wore him down, he interpreted his burnout as a sign of success.
“Do I believe that in our one, short human life the thing that gives my life value is contributing to corporate work that has economic returns?” he asked himself. “No. My answer to that question is no.”
Epperson had no delusions. He needed to make money. But if he wanted to infuse more awe into his life when he returned to the working world, he knew he would need to make changes, including integrating more unstructured time into his days.
- that says “My boundaries protect my spirit.”
This Go Fund Me to support Cole Richards, an Indigenous photographer who had their equipment stolen.
This is very relatable. I'm constantly driven by my own (possibly) delusional hope and imagination hahah. Goodness.
I’ve been at it my whole life. Still delusional but much more cautious at this stage with more responsibilities to shoulder and people to care for. But, yea I would still love to do it full time if at all possible. I think though it might be harder to do if I have to treat it as a business and I’m dependent on monetary outcomes which was the original approach. I do think the art is better when the outcomes don’t matter. In fact I watched the, “Arnold” documentary recently and he admitted that was an advantage for him when he committed to acting. He was already a millionaire which allowed him to pick and choose the parts he wanted without having to settle. They’re a lot of high paying careers that have built in flexibility for art 🖼️! Thanks for sharing!