Can Passion as an Artist Be Crippling?

The Pitfalls of Too Much Passion as an Artist

Sometimes we love something so much that it takes over our entire psyche. Makes our whole body buzz; makes our hearts sing. A desire so deep it must be tapped into because it most certainly cannot be ignored. Passion. 

This is what we should want out of life right? The excitement and fire about following your life’s greatest desires, but what if this mentality has a fallacy intertwined within it? 

I agree that feeling good about what you do can be extremely rewarding, but how can your brain tell the difference between feeling excitement for the thing and doing the thing itself? Passion is linked to the results more than the process of completing the project itself more often than not. We can see our vision, but we do not see the “process” or “hard work” that goes into it right away. And herein lies the problem… 

As an artist, it’s easy to get sucked up into your own excitement. If you’ve ever had a great idea or vision, you know what I mean. It’s like it forms entirely inside of your head, until your brain can’t decide whether or not it happened. So when you get satisfaction from “completing” this vision, what happens? Nothing. 

Your vision is never realized, and no one will ever truly see it – including yourself. 

And more than passion, what if you actually have potential at this art form? Whether it be dancing, writing, music, or any art form? Your natural talent seems almost like a gift (which, this is also a partial fallacy, but more on that later…). 

But can having too much passion for art be crippling for the art itself? When the passion overshadows the commitment and technical facility (craft and skill developed over years) to see it through, does passion or talent (the “easy” things) really matter? In other words, can talent play a part in your demise – and is hard work and skill-building actually superior? 

As an extremely passionate person, I have found at times that natural talent in something isn’t always a superior thing. When you pour so many emotions into just ideas, you don’t realize just how difficult something can be to come into fruition. Art forms are not easy, despite most of society thinking the contrary. And yet, artists blab on and on about their ideas, but when they are actually executed, they are mediocre, boring, or juvenile. Why is that? Because they have no skill in the art, they have no work ethic, and because they’re so passionate with base-level talent, they thought it was supposed to be easy – at least for them. 

You see, talent and/or passion is the breeding ground for laziness. It’s usually the people with the most “talent” (this is subjective, and VERY relative to your environment) that are the most complacent, and have no real goals to challenge themselves. It’s easy to think you’re already “good enough” in this mindset, however, this will ruin your chances of becoming better. Not a single person is so perfect they can stop working, and for all that passion, what tangible thing do you really have to show for it? 

So yes, in my experience, passion can be extremely crippling. It’s beautiful; it can make your internal world beautiful, but if it never sees the external world for other people to enjoy as well, it means nothing. How would a true artist feel about never seeing their own work for themselves in real time? A bit unfulfilled, I’d say. 

I don’t necessarily believe hard work is always superior. Passion definitely adds layers of authenticity to art, but not always. I believe the act of trying to balance out the passion/innate talent (how it feels) with the capacity to actually do art in a masterful way (the skills that are indisputable from practice, hard work, and time) can prove to be just what the overly passionate artist needs.

More resources to read:

https://forge.medium.com/what-you-need-to-know-when-visualizing-your-goals-413cd171b593

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-00580-010

Tag: passion, artist

Photo by Johnathan Kaufman on Unsplash