Yes, art in all forms should make the person experiencing it feels pure raw emotion. It makes no difference if the art is visual, audible or sensory. To create feelings in humans is the sole purpose of art.

When an observer looks at a painting, reads a story, or looks at a sculpture, you take the same moment to look at their face. If the art does its job you will see emotion. It might be confusion or disgust. Not all art makes humans happy. Often art pulls emotion from deep in the pit of our beings. It reaches to the back corner of our souls and finds the small fragment that we tried to bury and ignore. It pulls it out in the open where it must be dealt with, good or bad.

The question is, will the artist have the courage to create art knowing it will create a disturbance?

If the artist is creating art only for financial gain that is not courage, that is greed. If the artist is creating art in a way that is guarded and restrained by criticism, that is compliance.

Listen up writers, YOU create art with words.

If you are writing strictly for money or to gain readers, you are not writing with courage.

No matter what your art, remain true to yourself and your calling. Don’t compromise to gain readers, admirers, listeners, or collectors. Take the time to know your people, yes, but to change your voice, your calling, your vision, your dream to create your way just to gain a dollar, a follower or a fan, is a copout. It is taking the low road. At the very least it is lazy. It is certainly not creating with courage.

I like money and readers just as much as any author. I will not write what is popular unless it is calling me to write it. I will not write what is trendy for the sake of sales. I write what is pressing on me to write. Often it is a character yelling at me to write his or her story.

Toni Morrison said, “If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.”

Be brave. Create a disturbance with your art. Your people will find you.

~Lori O’Gara