ANGIE: I completely agree. There is also this unsettling feeling that lurks like a shadow as you get closer and closer to completing your piece. You just start to feel like, to complete the work is to take away its life. Pair that with the obvious insecurities that come with self-expression and your enthusiasm kind of evaporates.

MITCH: hmm its not that dramatic for me… it doesn’t feel like a death… it feels… melancholy because while it is finished, its potential is at its end. it has accomplished all it ever will, and depending on my laziness and or lack of talent… it probably didn’t end up fully realized in a meaningful way that lives up to the inspiration that gave birth to it.

hmm.. maybe it is like death

ANGIE: I think you articulated it better. It’s a death, but it is like a real death; it’s anticlimactic. You expect for there to be drama to distract you from the emptiness you feel, but there is none.

MITCH: like collecting butterflies on a pin. beautiful but stagnant

ANGIE: right, there’s no movement, but it feels like there should be

MITCH: maybe you should get into animation then

ANGIE: haha, punny.

Artwork by Mitch Shiwal

Part I of Interview here: 

https://theshowtellproject.wordpress.com/2013/06/10/interview-with-an-artist-mitch-schiwal-part-i/