Intense … There are so many intense feelings and situations, but more than anything I associate the word ‘intense’ with fear. There is a very strong fear in me, burning and consuming. The fear of never becoming an artist, the fear of never making it as an artist, the fear of just not being good enough, the fear of leaving the beaten path to raise a voice of my own, but also the fear of success. It is strange how something can be so ambivalent.  At the first glance it seems to contradict, but same as the flame of the candle forces the dark to recede, it also consumes the candle and in the end will lead to darkness again. In the end it is about overcoming this fear and stepping out into the open instead of hiding in the shadows. I will not even try to start a philosophical monolog about art&fear and fear in general, it has been done plenty of times, by much more intelligent and eloquent people than me. Still fear is very intense and it can rule every bit of us if we let it. Just like a spreading fire will be burning through all the material it can until all is gone. I am sure there is a way of using this powerful intense feeling and turn it into something more productive, but I have not yet found a way to do just that.