I'm in Awe of Artists.

I'm sketching again. Obsessed with it like I was a few years ago, filling up notebooks with drawings, on loose-leaf paper or printer paper or anything at hand, notepads even. If it's not one obsession it's another.

I took a break because as I'm looking at this guy's face I'm drawing, I know it isn't what I see in my mind. He's stiff. A cardboard cut-out in his rigidity. Which leads me to my point... I'm completely in awe of true artists. I've known a few artists here and there whose work was really great, and one who could make every line look alive, every sketch ache with emotion. It left me breathless to look at that kind of talent.

I draw because I need a release, and I enjoy it. I have no drive or desire to even see if I could excel at it. But some people have  a natural ability that I can't help be drawn to. I want to experience the emotion they exude through the work they leave on paper, be it visual art or the written word. It's so rare to find those kind of people. Even rarer when they don't see it, the beauty of their art and words buried beneath uncertainty and fragile hope... to be crude, it's refreshing to find a genius who isn't a total douche about his or her genius. BUT, I do feel like it's hard to blame a talented douche for being a douche, if he or she really is as good as the hype of their douchiness. It's just precious and rare when the amazing person retains a small shred of humility, and still wonders --even if it's paired with well-earned confidence-- if someone will like what they've created.