On Connection

by Kae Tempest

one sleeping in the park? Behind every exchange and encounter, every missed chance or lucky break, behind every event or non-event in a person’s life, there are entire weather systems, pushing for or pushing against.

if I do not get paid, my skills have no public worth, because what can’t be sold can’t be bought.

when I could finally say to others that yes I was living off my art, it made me feel legitimate. Because I judged myself by the spirit of these times, which is concerned with ‘use and value’. Rather than being in communication with the spirit of the depths, which wants me to ‘refind my soul’, or retune my creative compass.

you don’t have to be concerned with how you measure up to someone else’s ideas about your output. And even more importantly, you don’t have to be concerned with how you measure up to other people’s successes.

It’s tempting to define talent comparatively, but you are not in competition with anyone but yourself.

Listen to everything. Read as much as you can. Try to stay present and connected with whatever you’re engaging with when you’re engaging with

There is no success in writing. There are only better degrees of failure.

‘Finishing’ work, is what gives the artist the humility necessary to begin again. Many, many people have ideas. But to go through the agony of finishing that idea, realising you are so ill-equipped that, despite your burning conviction, your deep creativity, your relentless practice and your natural talent, you have still failed. You made a good go of it. The thing is out there, another step towards meaning. Next time, maybe you’ll do it better. Or maybe you’ll never do it again.

The difference between an artist and someone who dreams of becoming an artist is finished work.

all moments are incomplete until they have been digitised, made browsable, and it all just sits there, on our various profiles, performing.