I played a living room show this past Saturday in a neighborhood called Riverdale. I went to my partner’s family home for a meal before the show—they live nearby.

We chatted about the festival the night before at the late lunch/dinner table. We talked about the California fires. I excused myself to go upstairs to do my hair and makeup.

“This feels nice,” I thought, as I went through my vocal warmups and burnt what was left of my barely alive hair with a curling iron. The consistency of shows, the triumph of the festival the night before, and how quickly I moved on from it. I used to play small rooms and live on that high for the week following. Now I create festivals that showcase my art and so much more from my neighboring New York creators and move on from them almost immediately. I shift my focus to the next show. This mindset felt familiar, yet new. What was this feeling?

Read on, and share your story, through An Artist’s Blog on Substack.