Rough draft

In his essay "The Creative Process," James Baldwin describes how an artist must have imagination to
turn the harsh truths society has to provide about being an artist into beauty as it brings things into
balance. He says of the difficulties and various realizations that artists must experience, "The dangers of
being an American artist are not greater than those of being an artist anywhere else in the world, but
they are very particular." In his essay, Baldwin explains what it's like to be an artist to his readers. With
the opening sentence of his article, "Which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being
alone..." he explains to the readers that artists are only misunderstood and that, as a result, a common
emotion, loneliness, is shared by all of them. All people, according to Baldwin, are free to hold their own
opinions on what is or is not true. That artist ought to be capable of dissecting their own concepts and
not be reluctant to share them with the world.

Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love, explores the challenges of being an artist in her TED talk,
Your Elusive Creative Genius. She starts out by discussing the myth that artists have "earned a
reputation of being alcoholic manic-depressives" and how, in society, it is not particularly shocking when
we learn that an artist is having mental health issues or has passed away early; it just comes with the
territory (3:02). According to her opinion, there is too much pressure placed on artists and a lot of self-
blame when they start to struggle with their job or produce things that fall short of what they have
previously produced. Elizabeth believes that many young artists pass away because of this excessive
strain. She continues by stating that for hundreds of years, people held the view that creativity was not
innate, but rather that individuals who could produce art were endowed with their skills and inspirations
by supernatural entities or spirits. They were referred to be daemons in certain cultures and geniuses in
others. There is less pressure and stress placed on these artists because the blame isn't on them but
rather on these external creatures when you don't say that your creativity comes from you but is instead
something that is put into you. She remarks on how contemporary artists she is aware of make similar
claims about how their inspiration strikes them, as if it were being implanted in their minds by someone
or something else. Her final piece of advice is to keep working hard and performing your duties; if this
"genius" of yours decides to make it big, that is their decision to make.