Sisyphus and The Joy of Making Art

Picture Sisyphus rolling his boulder up that hill every day. He knows what’s going to happen when he gets to the top, though maybe not exactly how. One way or another, that boulder is coming down again. There’s nothing he can do about it. The momentum’s too strong once he’s reached the apex.

Some would see Sisyphus and feel pity.

Not him, though. He feels relief when he gets to the top. The hard part is done. The effort is exerted. Now he gets to watch his project complete itself. All he has to do is walk back down and start the next one.

That’s what it means to hit the tipping point on a creative project. It gets easy. The ideas are all formed, they just have to complete the cycle of being realized.

Then on to the next one.

Up and down.

There’s a beautiful rhythm to the creation of art, like breath.

Would you really want the boulder to sit at the top of that hill forever?

Wouldn’t that be like holding your breath until you die?