Sounds cliche but art keeps sane. Art is therapy. I need an outlet and art is that outlet. I don’t need a specific medium. I just need the freedom of time and space to create. Or in other words. To release. Because life is hard and throughout the journey, I get all this pent up energy. Conflict. Inconveniences. Arguments. Criticism. And my only way to cope is to let it all out with words on a page, or ink on canvas, or photos on... well, pixels nowadays. But you get the idea, it’s the aesthetically pleasing form of hitting a punching bag or screaming into a pillow, even road rage. Only I channel all that energy into my art, because even after a punching bag it’s still not enough, lol, jk. Art keeps me sane. Art is healing. Art helps me answer questions that need answering. It helps me better understand parts of myself that I often find rather confusing. When I’m not allowed to create, I go crazy. I operate at a lower frequency and I have trouble sleeping. I’m more irritable. Like if a tornado was forced to live inside a box. Or if your parents forced you to wear that old sweater from decades ago that you’ve clearly outgrown. So I create. I’m an artist. Surprisingly, I can’t really say it’s by choice. Honestly, sometimes, I’d just rather not, because I almost feel like most my energy for art comes from a rather negative place. My logic goes like this, if I was living a happy life I wouldn’t need to create art because I wouldn’t need to release any of this built up energy. Then again, who knows. The grass is always greener on the other side and there’s another saying that goes the grass is greener where you water it. So I won’t go hopping around from here to there. I’ll continue tending to my garden, right here, right now, with my angry tornado sweater too damn small art.

by Jason Lam