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penny in Writing Group

(Part 3)
Power of course gives access to larger recesses of the talent pool amongst the human population, but skills are needed to prop that notion up. Thus implied are artists. (I am very much going for visual artists, but performers, athletes, scientists, among many others are also (and have always been) implied here) Many artists struggle with mental health, and I wonder if this is also why. One thing many people in these professions or fostering these aspirations have such (sometimes quite powerful) desires to change the world (even if small). Once again, these desires require skill or power to manifest, which take years to develop. In the meantime, while the eventually-talented artists suffer at the hands of the burning desire they lack the skills to execute. This is what I suspect affects the poor mental health of many artists. The aspiration to create or to change the world around them with their ideas, and perhaps this overcomes some or pushes others toward power which means they stop developing their skills as a goal for the world if not altogether.
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oh this is really interesting! The contrast between power and skill and the way the 2 inform each other that you've highlighted here is fascinating, and you make a very good point with the art and mental health - everything I've ever created I always find some part of myself wishing it were made by someone better skilled than me, better at writing, or painting, etc. It's something I've gotten better at dealing with lately, trying to be less of a perfectionist, but i think a lot of artists definitely struggle with perfectionism - the ability to see this concept in one's head but be unable to execute it, which is deeply frustrating, as you point out.