Beautifully Uncomfortable
……….Creation comes from a place of intentional discomfort, and I am choosing to be beautifully uncomfortable1.
……….I am choosing to grow and to embrace the beautiful, tragic, and sometimes overwhelming discomfort that comes with it. I know moving forward may feel impossible at times, but I also know that staying put is fatal. My art is proof to myself that I haven’t stopped moving.
……….I am a student of the universe and I hope to always choose a life in which I am never perfect, but always learning, always changing, and always growing. My art (both written and otherwise) are reflections on my experiences in this world and the thoughts, questions, and lessons that have come with them. Through my creations I try to process the complexities of life, society, nature, the self, other, and what it means to be a statistically insignificant piece of an infinite collective. My goal is to find balance between the intimate magic of making art and the inconvenient affliction of being both human and self-aware. I know my balance may be wobbly, but I am sharing my work as wholly authentic pieces of myself: confident, fragile, and flawed. Perhaps, in the end, it will all come together to resemble something beautiful.
……….Years of accumulating lessons, trauma, grief, change, and growth have led me to face another choice. I have kept it all dammed up for too long and I know that it is starting to drown me. So, this forum is the manifestation of my refusal to sink and of my choice to open the flood gates to begin releasing my art, pieces of my soul, into the void.
……….Whether you read my writings, look at my art, see my photos, or not, is of no consequence to me. However, if you do stick around, I sincerely hope that you are entertained and that you might find something that reminds you of the reflection in your own mirror (even if it’s uncomfortable, perhaps especially if it is). At the very least, my wish is that my art may be a reminder that you are not alone. And, likewise, I thank you, genuinely, for your company on this beautifully uncomfortable journey.
-Bethany J. Maxwell
1Honestly, every choice is uncomfortable. However, free will gives us the power to decide which discomforts we accept. The power, implications, and weight of choice is something I plan to delve deeper into in my writing.