Enjoy this letter? You can find more on my personal Substack here.

Identity is a dynamic force. It holds the power to both empower and confine.

How liberating does it feel to finally crush under our feet the faulty label that had been glued to our foreheads, and pick up another one— one that feels truer?

Until it isn't anymore.

Until something subtle shifts within, calls our name in another direction.

Until we feel the pull to explore the uncharted inner landscapes we've kept dormant.

How inconvenient.

We've shed blood, sweat, and tears to emerge from whatever closet we had locked ourselves in, and yet a new door appears on the horizon. Only, this isn't just a door, but a doorway waiting for our emergence, opening space for more of us.

Yet, when that doorway seems to be leading us in a new—even opposite—direction, one sensible question to ask is: Am I straying, or am I building a new wing within my own home?

Embracing the "both and" proposition demands courage.

Holding dichotomies, contrasts and contradictions within oneself, is no small feat.

"I am this. I cannot possibly be that."

Dear one, yes. Yes, you can.

Identity is not fixed; it is a mosaic of experiences and discoveries.

Personal truth, after all, is fluid. It flows, and morphs.

It isn't a monolith, but a multifaceted gem.

There is a certain kind of beauty in consistency—and a very intriguing mystery in choosing to follow our intuitive nudges, even when it seems to be bringing us nowhere near our recent self-definitions.

Dear creative mind, how brave of you to constantly contradict yourself.

It is the sacred duty of artists to transform, transmute, transition, and welcome contradiction as metamorphosis. Artists are shapeshifters and changemakers, both creators and creations— entwined with the fabric of change itself. The creative process is mysterious and mutable—and to dance along with it, we need to be brave enough to allow ourselves to, also, be mysterious and mutable.

Wild, weird, wise one—dare to stretch yourself out of the canvas—East, West, North, South. Jump out of the easel, spiral out in all directions. It is okay not to make sense. Coherence isn't essential. Your coherence is in your chaos. You are indeed making sense in a very senseless way.

Tell me, what are you being faithful to? Your ever-changing, ever-wavering, ever-expanding truth—or the idea that truth can only be static?

Any creative soul seeking consistency in the creative process will only find stagnancy, illusion, and madness. Taming our wild nature cages the creative spirit— and creative psychosis, annihilation, assassination follows.

As artists, our role and responsibility is first and foremost to explore questions, not to provide answers. We are here to dissect concepts, eviscerate ideologies, and expose many co-existing truths. We are here to question, not to solve. We are here to move, not to stay put. At times, we may indeed look like a walking contradiction— a conundrum for those needing to store people into tiny, tidy prelabeled boxes. Only, you don't belong in any of them.

Being an artist comes with this requirement to contradict yourself—so that you can stay true to yourself and your art. Contradiction challenges the conventional notions of stability and consistency, inviting us to explore the ever-evolving facets of ourselves and our art.

Remaining loyal to an unwavering concept of truth is a recipe for stagnancy, staleness, and inevitably, untruth. In reality, artists are being faithful to another kind of religion: the pursuit of truth as a perpetually shifting target.