Why did you decide to become a therapist?
From my early 30s, I thought I might become a therapist if being in the art world became too much to bear. Surely enough, in my mid-40s, I decided I had had enough of its fashion cycles, its vicissitudes, and its fickleness. Soon, I was applying to graduate school again, this time for counseling. I told a friend, “I give up being an artist in the art world,” which felt good, if a bit shocking. I had wanted to be an artist—and I didn’t give up being an artist, really. I just gave up, at least temporarily, tying part of my identity to being someone who reveled in his work being seen, valued, and acquired by collectors and institutions.
Max Maslansky: Himbo and Shame Eating Sea God Vessel at the Bath, 2022.
Photo Max Maslansky
I knew I needed a passion other than making art that would be financially stable and emotionally satisfying. Being an artist tends to be a very selfish business that involves spending many hours alone. The world needs art, but the cost of making it feels indulgent, whereas being a therapist has more of a direct contribution to the betterment of something or someone.
Now that I’m in my second year of training as a therapist, I feel ready to make art again, with the same ambition I’ve always known, though I am tentative about wanting to be part of the art world as I knew it. More than anything, I’ve realized making art is about self-care. That is what is most important now.
What kind of therapy do you practice,
and why?
I practice psychoanalytic therapy, the branch originally founded by Freud and since elaborated and refined by so many others. I chose that modality because I fell in love with its language and stories, its focus on the earliest relationships in one’s life and how they color the present.
What do art and therapy have in common?
Art-making is self-care. Not making it, one can feel like a slice of one’s self has been taken away. In that sense, art is very similar to therapy, because its practice can bring you in better contact with yourself. Art is a healing dialectic with the self, whereas therapy is a healing dialectic with another person—which is ultimately a more effective and efficient way to bring about personal growth and understanding. Another mind helps decipher between reality and fantasy.
Did your evolution surprise you, or had you always been curious?
My evolution surprised me mildly. I tend to be very persistent, so to “give up” on the art world felt like a huge rupture in my life’s narrative. On the other hand, it felt like I was always going to take this road, knowing that my values are not aligned with those of the art world.
What has surprised you most?
Working as a trainee therapist has been humbling. Starting a new skill from scratch can be difficult at times. But I am surprised by how fast I am learning “on the job.”
Has working as a therapist changed your art?
It’s made my practice feel much more open-minded and expansive, less concerned with distinct purposes and goals in mind.
Maslansky (b. 1976) is a painter who has exhibited at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York, the 2014 edition of “Made in L.A.,” and elsewhere.
