Dear Artist,
A subscriber wrote, “Success as an artist to me is when you go to sleep your last thoughts are about creating. When you wake up in the morning your first thoughts are about creating. It comes from the gut, from your insides.”
“Deep Forest” ca. 1931
oil on canvas by
Emily Carr (1871-1945)
They say that if you wake up in the morning looking for a cigarette, you’re addicted. Quite a few creators — not all — fit the profile described. Further, it seems there’s often a relationship between our feelings of success and some sort of addictive behavior. But unlike other habits that may threaten health and happiness, this condition might just be good for you. As one friend put it: “Art’s the dope, and I’m the junkie.” I’ve always noticed that the artist’s life is chock-a-block with mind-bending contradictions.
“Vanquished” 1930 (Q’una Skedans)
oil on canvas by Emily Carr
Here are a few ideas how you might sniff more of the good stuff:
Work secretly. Don’t let the cat out of the bag.
Share the joy. Enjoy the high with others.
Work quickly. Speed speeds inventiveness.
Take your time. Get it right. Take pains.
Be focused. It’s just a habit.
Multitask. Do something else while the paint dries.
Be self-trusting. Follow your nose to your bliss.
Be strategic. Plan your work, work your plan.
“Zunoqua of the Cat Village” 1931
oil on canvas by Emily Carr
Be compulsive. This dope won’t kill you.
Be beguiled. Let enchantment happen.
Calculate. Take time for enchantment.
Pace yourself; rest, relax. Know your limit.
Take trips. Great things come from altered states.
Be obsessed with the pursuit of perfection.
Know that perfection can never be achieved.
Laugh. Fly. Go naked. Dance in the snow.
Get hooked. Art is its own magic mushroom.
Love. Love of creation. Love of process. Love of others. Love for another. These are the great addictions. Success comes when you can’t stop serving that which you love. “Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.” (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
“Blunden Harbour Totems”
(circa 1927-1932)
oil painting by Emily Carr
Best regards,
Robert
PS: “For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity or perception to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.” (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche)
Esoterica: It could be in the DNA. Some folks may be simply wired to connect their hands and brains almost automatically, obsessively, to keep themselves learning and making. Recent research has indicated that certain life activities and values are built into us. Feelings of religious certitude, for example, seem to be related to missing DNA in some individuals. Is it possible that creators may also have a little blank spot, or perhaps a rogue gene?
This letter was originally published as “Art junkie” on March 2, 2004.
Growing Pains: The Autobiography of Emily Carr
Download the new audio book, The Letters: Vol. 1 and 2, narrated by Dave Genn, here. Proceeds of sales contribute to the production of The Painter’s Keys.
“Over and over one must ask oneself the queston, ‘What do I want to express? What is the thought behind the saying? What is my ideal, what my objective? What? Why? Why? What?’ ” (Emily Carr)
Salome’s salvationmixed media
60 x 122 cm
Featured Artist
Monique Jarry is a Canadian and a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Montreal.
9 Comments
Good Grief…..Finally an acute synopsis of creative synergism….HEY! A new school of ART is born….the synergists! I like that….( has it already been taken?) Creative energy is a life force often at odds with the “real” world. It’s very real for an artist though….it’s how we perceive our place in the world as well as how we perceive the world in our place. You know the high that comes from a perfect combination materializing both mentally and physically inside our little domain….how to convey that high is another matter altogether.
Happy! This letter makes me happy! Such a gem. Thank you.
I don’t consider my drive to paint as an addiction. For me, painting is not a compulsion, albeit a positive one, but more a deliberate choice to fulfill a potential I wasn’t aware of until fairly late in life. It’s true that some observers might think I’m addicted to painting, that I’ve narrowed my life interests to one thing; but I see it more as “serving that which you love.” Of course, as Robert suggests, I may be deluded, simply painting at the effect of some rogue gene, and actually have no say in the matter. Either way, I will paint.
I just can’t not create! I have loved every creative moment I’ve ever had for as long as I can remember since my earliest childhood..crayons, paper, canvas, paints, clay, sticks, plants, fabric. lumber….the list of mediums and applications goes on. Call it inborn. Call it predestined. Call it genetic. Call it unique. Call it an anomaly. Call it and addiction. It is what it is and it is me and I absolutely love the process!! https://stevenwdunn.blogspot.com
PS: Being the middle of five children (we are all five years apart!), I was blessed with parents who never stifled these tendencies.
Emily Carr. Here on the southern shore of one of the Great Lakes, I was looking to buy a house. One venerable cape cod I visited was totally inappropriate for our needs, but the walls were hung with original Emily Carr paintings. I was astonished. I mentioned them to one of the owners who told me her grandmother had been a personal friend of the artist and had been given the pictures. I didn’t tell her that the pictures were worth several times what she was asking for the house, but then maybe she knew. She obviously adored them.
Currently reading Emily Carr’s ‘Hundreds and Thousands’. So comforting and enlightening. I recommend. Now I will have to get her autobiography too! Thank you for your always good reading………..
Always enjoy reading Robert’s wise insights. This article makes me feel justified.
Robert’s conflicting advice is wonderful – all true!
As an addict would say…..”Some really good shit!!”
I passed this on to several of my friends for a smile and a remedy for their exquisite creative pain,