I love watching the video documentaries about bands and the making of great albums. I relish the moment when the members of a band, say Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, understand that they are never going to have to go back to a day job. Music is now going to be their full-time job. I want that escape so bad I can taste it.
The Great Escape
In my case, at the moment, I’m 63. Undiscovered. Struggling with health insurance and cash flow. Artists often have money problems. I would spend my last $1,000 recording a new song to tell my soon-to-be-ex to reconsider. That’s a bit of a different story, but suffice it to say, I’d spend money I don’t have making music or art.
This year, 2026, is an inflection point. The great novel of my life (six actually) has been completed. I am now digesting all that I have written in this magnum opus: Icarus Ascending is the series title. I am drawing my own line in the sand: publish or perish trying.
The Path
Your art, my art, is important even if no one values it. Even if we never make a penny from our art, music, writing, it does not matter. Well, okay, emotionally it matters a lot. I’m ready for the release when I sign that deal… Oh, yeah, about that…
Here’s what I know about the creative path. You are only going to be successful if you are tenacious enough to keep going for it. To never give up. And to continually push and reinvent yourself and your art. Music, writing, visual, whatever it is: your human creativity is the engine.
What Rilke said so much better than many, (paraphrased from memory, not Google):
Do not ask if your writing is good. Do not look to others for approval, motivation, or as an indication of the value of your human creative act. It is the human act of creation that is the goal.
God
I don’t write a ton about god and spirituality, but creativity is a special category. By expressing your creativity: singing, writing, reading, performing, you are giving honor to god. You don’t have to be “in the name of,” you can just be creative. Matthew Fox’s book Original Blessing will shed some light on the spiritual side of creativity for me. Via Creativa is the idea that human creativity is human prayer. Human celebration and performance is a gift to god and all the people who are touched by the performance.
That’s it. Between Rilke and Fox, I began to do art for me and for my celebration of spiritual connection. I am more connected with other humans. Jesus, I don’t really understand. I was raised Southern Presbyterian. I identify as spiritual, not religious.
How do you envision your escape? From the daily grind? From depression? From a dry spell? What’s the “escape” you need in your life?
John McElhenney – artist
Artistsway.ai < go
next up: learning to dream – capture and release
prompt for image: minimal woodcut of a woman in a red beret writing at the table in a journal with a cup of coffee steaming beside her
Watch this space. Our partners at iterativ.ai and isthisart.ai are hard at work getting our training and enablement system up and ready for beta testers. If you’d like to be among the first to try ArtistWay.AI please reach out to [email protected]. We will send invites as the system comes online in early 2026.
From the minds of
