I think it's the pain and suffering that drive you to become an artist. The art itself should be the pain, sort of exorcising every demon and making you feel like you're a person that matters.

This quote means that it is usually the difficult times in one’s life, such as pain and suffering, that cause them to become an artist. The act of creating art can be therapeutic and help a person use their emotions to transform what they are feeling into something productive. It can make a person feel as though their life has meaning and that they are important.