The artist on her journey may try out a number of styles before finding her own. Each one of these—subject, voice, point of view, medium of expression, and style—is an aspect of the single question, "What is my gift?" which is itself another way of asking, "Who am I?"

Far too many creative people have been taught to distrust pleasure and to put their faith in struggle alone. Too many artists still believe that anguish is the only truly authentic emotional experience. They could have picked up this dark idea anywhere; it’s a commonly held belief here in the Western world, what with our weighty emotional heritage

After investing all this time in creating their paintings, when they were finished, the artists didn’t triumphantly gaze at what they had made and show it off and seek out praise for it. Almost all of them simply put the painting away and started working on another