The Art as the Journey
Artistry transcends the act of creation; it is about how we navigate life’s challenges, confront our vulnerabilities, and return with insights that shape both our work and who we become. To be an artist is to embark on a hero’s journey — one that calls for stepping away from comfort, facing trials, and returning transformed. This journey echoes through ancient myths and weaves itself into the stories of modern creators, embodying a quest for meaning in an ever-changing world.
The Universal Structure of Human Experience
Joseph Campbell, the esteemed American mythologist, devoted his life to exploring the “monomyth,” or the universal hero’s journey found across cultures and eras. His seminal work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, distilled myths and legends into a common narrative: a hero who departs from the known world, faces trials, gains a profound insight or transformation, and returns to share this newfound understanding. One myth that particularly resonates with me and continues to echo in my thoughts is the story of Gilgamesh, an ancient Sumerian epic that embodies themes of friendship, loss, and the quest for meaning. Gilgamesh, the powerful and initially arrogant king of Uruk, finds his match and true friend in Enkidu, a wild being shaped by the gods to balance Gilgamesh’s unchecked power. Their bond grows as they embark on perilous quests, confronting formidable foes like Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven. Through these trials, Gilgamesh learns loyalty and courage, qualities that temper his divine might with human empathy.
The turning point arrives with the tragic death of Enkidu, which shatters Gilgamesh and propels him to seek immortality, forcing him to face his deepest fears and the reality of human mortality. His quest teaches him that true immortality lies not in escaping death but in embracing life’s fleeting nature and leaving behind a meaningful legacy. Gilgamesh returns to Uruk transformed — no longer just a powerful king but a wiser, more reflective leader who understands that life’s true measure is found in the relationships and deeds that endure.
Campbell’s own journey began as a young scholar immersed in Native American folklore and blossomed into a career exploring the mythic stories of humanity. His findings showed that while the stories varied widely in detail, their underlying themes were universal — echoing the shared human experience of struggle, growth, and self-realization. This understanding resonated deeply with artists, who Campbell believed lived out this cycle not only in grand pursuits but in the daily commitment to their craft and life.
Loss as the Departure Point
My own hero’s journey began with the sudden death of James Stewart, a gifted music producer and mix engineer who was both a friend and trusted creative partner. Over decades, we collaborated on projects that spanned professional and personal endeavors — each one a blend of expression and mastery. His passing was a devastating and unexpected departure that upended my sense of stability and direction.
Grief, however, became a crucible — a place where the essence of life is tested and reshaped. During the final recording sessions of my first solo album in mid-2016, James’ death brought a sharp awareness that the project would either fall into stagnation or evolve into a testament to persistence and part of James’ legacy. The process of completing that album paralleled Campbell’s stages of the hero’s journey: departure fueled by loss, trials of navigating production while grappling with grief, and, ultimately, the realization that creation itself is a powerful affirmation of life.
Quality, Experience, and the Art of Living
While Campbell offers a narrative framework for the hero’s journey, Robert Pirsig’s philosophical exploration in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila: An Inquiry into Morals provides another layer of insight into how we navigate this path. Pirsig’s pursuit of “Quality” — an elusive concept that bridges the subjective and objective realms — aligns with the conscious awareness needed in artistry. His works charted a hero’s journey of their own: a deep intellectual and personal odyssey that examined the pursuit of meaning through both reason and intuition.
Pirsig’s life, marked by battles with mental illness and an unrelenting quest for understanding, embodied the hero’s path. His writing conveyed that true quality isn’t found solely in outcomes but in the process of engagement itself. In this light, the trials we encounter — whether in life or in creative endeavors — are not mere obstacles but essential parts of living with depth and purpose.
Trials and Unknowns
The journey of artistry often means venturing into new forms of expression. For today’s creatives, this involves stepping into uncharted territory, such as learning new programming languages, experimenting with generative AI, or mastering interactive and multimedia formats. Each new skill represents a test of patience and bravery, akin to setting out to explore a foreign culture — not for simple diversion but for profound understanding.
This active engagement stands in contrast to passive consumption, such as staying at all-inclusive resorts or indulging in cruise ship luxuries where every need is pre-met. Real artistry demands immersion and participation. It requires choosing to observe, learn, and integrate new experiences, much like a traveler who seeks out the soul of a place through its language, art, and everyday rhythms.
The Return
Ultimately, the hero’s journey is defined by the return — the point at which the hero comes back, transformed by their trials. For me, completing my first solo album symbolized this return. It became a synthesis of loss, purpose, and newfound strength. Releasing it was both a tribute to James and an assertion of life’s fragile yet profound beauty. It reminded me that true artistry is not only a matter of skill but of engaging deeply with all aspects of life — from joy to sorrow, certainty to the unknown.
As Campbell and Pirsig illustrate, the journey of artistry is not just about the final product but about the process of becoming. It’s about the trials we face, the new skills we master, and the moments when we stand on the edge of what we know and choose to step forward with conviction. For the next generation of artists, writers, musicians, and designers, this means recognizing every challenge as a call to adventure and each creation as a step toward understanding the world and oneself.
Artistry, then, is more than the act of creating; it is living a life that becomes, in itself, a work of art.