PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST
I
n the end, we arrive at a kind of model of the artist's
world, and that model is that there exist other, higher
planes of reality, about which we can prove nothing, but
from which arise our lives, our work, and our art. These
spheres are trying to communicate with ours. When Blake
said Eternity is in love with the creations of time, he was
referring to those planes of pure potential, which are time-
less, placeless, spaceless, but which long to bring their visions
into being here, in this timebound, space-defined world.
The artist is the servant of that intention, those angels,
that Muse. The enemy of the artist is the small-time Ego,
which begets Resistance, which is the dragon that guards
the gold. That's why an artist must be a warrior and, like
all warriors, artists over time acquire modesty and
humility. They may, some of them, conduct themselves
flamboyantly in public. But alone with the work they
are chaste and humble. They know they are not the
source of the creations they bring into being. They only
facilitate. They carry. They are the willing and skilled
instruments of the gods and goddesses they serve.STEVEN PRESSFIELD I