November 2023 Following my enthusiasm in the streets of Paris, I passed by an art gallery. One of the paintings really struck me and I decided to enter. It was the vernissage so I was lucky the painter was there. It was around the time I wanted to start painting. So after congratulating him, I began asking a ton of (practical) questions. I didn't know, at that time, that I was about to get the answer to the most important question I didn't ask. He was exposing around 15 paintings. Expansive, around 20k€ each! A friend of him joined us and they were kind enough to include me in their "private" conversation. The painter was telling his friend that he was happy: he had sold 3 paintings. You could think: "wow 60k€...!" But do you know what's the most amazing? "Among all the 15, they are exactly the 3 that I don't like". Can you believe that? Do you realize that if he censored these paintings because he didn't "like" them - assuming this meant there were less "good" - he'd not only have slept on 60k but deprived 3 persons to have such an emotion of beauty that they were ready to spend 20k on it. I realized myself that the painting that had drawn me into this gallery was... one of the 3. Wow. And if he censored it, he would have deprived me of 1- this emotion of beauty 2- this life-changing moment: My taste has nothing to do with my job as an artist. My job is to help non-material beings come into this material world. Nobody asks me for my opinion on what comes. Who on earth am I to interfere in that process? Who on earth am I to think that my taste matters? It should have never entered the equation in the first place. My job is to get out of the way. [1] Amazed by what I had just experienced, I thanked him and continued wandering in Paris following my enthusiasm. Always. And there I am at another vernissage. Where the painter is also present! The interaction we had then was less deep but do you know what he told me? "I always keep the paintings I screw up because usually that's the ones that are liked and purchased. It's always like that." Boom, again. There's a truth here. There's something. I then remembered Celine Dion saying she hated "My Heart Will Go On" but sang it because it was the job. Now she loves it for what it represents for people, but still despise the song itself. This reminds us of our role in society as artists. Wether we like a piece we receive is out of the scope. Our role is to flood reality with these beings banging at the door to come into this world. Each being will trigger a beauty response in some people. Thus each being deserves to exist. And we have the duty to never let our Selves get in the way.[2] In fact, it was not the only realization I had in the first gallery. A sculptor was sharing the show with the painter. She gave me the second biggest realization I needed. Yes, it was a very big day. At the time of writing, the biggest in all of my artist life. Notes [1.a] But of course, I understand why I made this mistake like so many artists before me: we believe that what we like is what's "best". "Best" having the very specific meaning here of what maximizes our chances to "make it". First, this story proves your artist life can be transformed by the pieces you don't like. Second, chasing "success" really is mistaking what artist's happiness is - as well as creating expectations blocking the flow and altering its sincerity. [1.b] Another thing I noted is how detached he was from his paintings. "Oh...ok,great" was he responding to all the commentaries and interpretations visitors were coming to share with him. He really was looking for no congrats, really almost like it was another artist's work. Almost like he was himself visiting the gallery. [1.c] The censor of our own taste is one of the two big blocks preventing artists to live their creativity. The second huge one is how the artist "feels". I summed them up once and for all here: Artists, Get Your Self Out of the Way. [2] And the Universe thanks us tremendously for that, with the feeling coming with disinhibited creation. Once you experience it, everything falls into place. Honestly. You finally found your place in all of this cosmic process of creativiy as well as in society. Plus you know the only thing you wanna build your life around. I'm not overstating this, I really encourage everyone to try it. I don't have kids - and will edit this line the day I got one - but I think it's among the top 2 feelings one can experience in this human incarnated existence.