Why does an artist keep at it? It is the obsessive need to create along with the acknowledgement that one has deeply suffered--living outside the “normal” society model of working 9-5 for an institution and receiving a paycheck. To stop creating, to attempt to join the long line of institutional work would be a slap in an artist’s face.
Money is not the pay off. To die with a bank account overflowing would mean little to an artist. To die knowing that one has created a substantial body of good work–that is what soothes an artist’s soul.
Of course, artists are not intentional martyrs. Artists appreciate money. Really appreciate it–as they have put long hours of labour into their work and also their entire being.
But in the end, on the bed of death, if one has sacrificed expressing one’s soul and toiled at nothing that truly made one’s soul sing, that is a sad day of suffering.
And so, on that note I will announce I am committing myself to even more creative toil. I am focusing on painting again after much time away from it. I took a substantial amount of time off to focus on writing. My writing tasks are still no where near complete (the digital revolution is still in its infancy and thus, the writing world is in a cyclone and the writer must find her own way); however, I am finding my way–two steps forward, one back. There is much more writing ahead for me, but I have accomplished much of the ground work so I have the time to also focus on my painting again.
I’ll be attending a workshop to learn the true renaissance technique of painting. This technique is not commonly used by today’s artists but I am combining that technique with my macro-style portraitures of nature for interesting results.
I enjoy freelance writing and I will continue to keep at it for as long as it pays my bills; but in the end, it is fiction writing and painting that soothes my soul. And thus, I forge ahead, to toil…
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