Building Your Fortress: Why Every Piece Matters
I like to think of every piece of art I create as a building block. A single brick in the fortress that is my body of work. A chapter in the story only I can tell.
That awkward drawing you made with crayons as a kid? That first time you sat down and thought, “Alright, let’s make something cool”? That experimental piece that didn’t quite work? That one you’re quietly proud of but haven’t shown anyone yet? Or how about that one that is hiding in a sketch book that you are embarrassed to have drawn?
They all matter.
There is no “better” or “worse” art.
And I don’t mean to say you can’t have art that you dislike. Just like music or any other creative field, personal taste is natural and inevitable. I certainly have plenty of preferences and a few strong dislikes. But my personal taste doesn’t make anyone else’s work less valid as art. It simply reflects what resonates with me in the moment.
Art that tells a powerful story is beautiful. Art that is technically masterful is beautiful. But art that is quiet, strange, messy, or “just for fun” is equally valid. None of those qualities make one piece more legitimate than another.
The early work isn’t embarrassing filler you need to outgrow and hide. It’s the foundation. Without those first shaky layers, the taller, more refined walls could never stand.
So create what you want. Make it exactly how you want to make it. Use the materials that excite you. Break the rules that feel good to break. Stay inside the lines if that’s where your joy lives.
The fortress you’re building isn’t judged by how flawless each individual brick is. It’s judged by the simple, stubborn fact that you kept showing up and laying them down—one after another, even on the days when you weren’t sure what you were doing.
Keep stacking.
Your weird bricks, your safe bricks, your experimental bricks, your “I don’t know what this even is” bricks… they all belong.
Because in the end, the most impressive thing won’t be how perfect any single piece turned out.
It will be the entire fortress you built, simply because you refused to stop creating.
