Whats it all about?

The older I get the more I ask myself, my students and anyone else who'll listen,
"Whats it all about?"

Here's one thing it seems to be about for me:

There's a difference between painting a portrait and painting what somone looks like.
At some point painting or drawing stops being an excercise in technique and process and starts to become a series of lies to expose an underlying, subjective truth.

Battling

Sometimes its a struggle to find a space to paint a painting. Sometimes its a struggle to get the paint to stick to the substrate. Sometimes its a struggle to get my emotions and my ideas to line up. Sometimes its hard to focus a composition from the infinite options. Sometimes its hard to know whether its good enough, or relevant, or even valid. Its rarely easy and when its easy its safe.

I think its vital for an artist to enjoy the battle.