Thirty-something, self-taught sculptor with Rheumatoid Arthritis. I've had my shoulders, knees, and hips replaced, making some parts of this life hell, but I sure as shit see the beauty in it.
One doesn't become an artist overnight. First you have to be crushed, to have your conflicting points of view annihilated. You have to be wiped out as a human being in order to be born again as an individual. You have to be carbonized and mineralized in order to work upwards from the last common denominator of the soul. You have to go beyond pity in order to feel from the very roots of your being.
--Henry Miller, The Tropic of Capricorn
When all the desires that surge in the heart are renounced, the mortal becomes immortal. When all the knots that strangle the heart are loosened, the mortal becomes immortal, here in this very life.
We win by capitalizing on our debts, by turning our liabilities into assets, by using our burdens as a basis of insight. --Kenneth Burke