Post 1 on The War of Art

The book has very short chapters and a lot of it makes sense. We - artists, writers, singers, songwriters, etc. - struggle to keep doing what we do. Sometimes you sit in front of your computer,  or canvas, and lose interest in what you are doing so you never complete that task. I suffer from procrastination, which is what I believe the author in this book calls "resistance". The book is easy to follow and not hard to understand, but having the author say "You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and later to the School of Architecture. Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement but I’ll say it anyway: it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas" (pg 15) was a bit too much. Any artist has seen some of his paintings and though they aren't spectacular they weren't terrible. He got rejected and told that his work wasn't good. Resistance didn't "beat him", people killed his dream of becoming an artist. So for the author to say something to that extreme is an overstatement.

There will be an update on this book next week.