CB's Challenge to Artists

[Karl Zipser]

In response to my recent post, "Why is it so difficult to be an
artist?", CB made this comment:
"How can any one living in the developed world. with enough money &
free time to waste it dicking around with a website and on
rec.arts.fine, in anyway consider their life or even their work "hard"?
Living in Iraq would be hard, farming in Sudan would be hard, having a
degenerative painful disease would be hard. But for artists to pretend
to be in the same boat is just self-involved nonsense. [read more...]
http://www.zipser.nl

[CB]

"Karl Zipser" <k...@zipser.nl> wrote in message
news:1146644825.8...@j73g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

It's not a challenge, it's an expectation. You are (I assume) an adult; you
should be able to take responsibility for your decisions without needing to
portray yourself as a martyr or victim.
I checked out the full comment on the blog and noted you seemed to think it
a badge of honor to submit to suffering arising before dawn to do art. If
your lover woke you up for a cuddle in the pre-dawn hours, would you walk
around complaining the same way? OTOH, if your cat woke you up coughing up
hairballs at that hour, well, you might have some justification. Where do
you place your art production on that scale?
Cheers;
CB

[Karl Zipser]

CB, I take inspiration where I can find it. Call your comment a
challenge or expectation, it's fine with me. I was up early today and
started drawing. I'm challenging, or expecting, myself to continue. I
used to do this often, don't know how I lost the good habit. The early
hours are valuable, I find -- almost like time gained. Staying up late
seems like time lost, at least with the schedule I need to keep.
CB,
As you point out, in a relative sense most of our lives are easy. But
that does not mean it is easy to accomplish any goal that we set for
ourselves. In fact, an easy life can make it more difficult to reach
some goals -- because it becomes so easy to do something different.

Being an artist is difficult for reasons that go beyond the emotional
ones you are finding or imagining in the blog. The reason I find your
challenge/expectation useful is that you make me realize that to
accomplish difficult goals, I need to push harder. I knew that anyway,
of course, but it is always good to hear it again.