Our creatives sometimes create to ease the pain or express the pain or to say fuck you to life or just because that's what they do. But many creatives create from some form of PTSD. My best pieces were created from a pain that I just could not escape. The pain was so great that suicide seemed like my only way to peace of mind. My creations, however saved me. They are dark and now endearing. Much like our combat veterans, who need to heal in their own ways as well. The owner of Rococo had no desire to support art party because we support AHERO, an organization designed to help combat vets heal from the traumas of war. She said "it was the veterans choice to join the armed forces and has a friend with a back full of shrapnel not whining about his feelings." I said, everyone handles their experience in different ways. I'm glad your friend is fine.  That wasn't it tho.  We got into a heated argument and then her dad jumped in with I fought in Vietnam and I'm not crying about it.  Then out of the blue he gets super pissed and says "do you know how many soldiers died for our freedom? " I said, "Yeah asshole I do!  What the hell is your problem?  Do you only support dead soldiers?" Well I was too dumbfounded and aggravated to say anything else, so I just left.

Now I say, it was someone's choice to get in a relationship and they ended up with a broken heart. Whether it's war that jacks up your emotions to the point of contemplating suicide or good love gone bad, or the loss of a loved one before you got the chance to spend the time you wanted with them or just the fucked up challenges of life, or even being embarrassed for something stupid you may have done. I've been there (not war) and I think many others have too. Are we weak? No, we just have a lot of heart.

Art Party supports those who want to get it out of their system through their creations. I use the term creations because it doesn't necessarily have to be "art". It can be mechanical, architectural, scientific, stories, poetry, or whatever. We want to see raw unfiltered creations from people like us... suicidal, pissed off, broken hearted, etc. So next time you run into someone having a hard time find out what drives their passion and encourage them to follow it, but listen first. Sometimes we just want to be heard.