trajectory that, over the long haul, alter the course and the
satisfactions of our careers.
You are lost the instant you know what the result will
be.
JUAN GRISThis means writing your morning pages. Taking your
artist date. “But I run a studio,” you say—or whatever other
thing it is you must do. “People depend on me.” I say, all
the more reason to depend on yourself and protect your own
creativity.
If we ignore our inner commitment, the cost rapidly
becomes apparent in the outer world. A certain lackluster
tone, a rote inevitability, evicts creative excitement from our
lives and, eventually, our finances. Attempting to insure our
finances by playing it safe, we lose our cutting edge. As the
promised projects diverge further and further from our inner
leanings, a certain deep artistic weariness sets in. We must
summon our enthusiasm at gunpoint instead of reveling in
each day’s creative task.
Artists can and do responsibly meet the demands of their
business partnerships. What is more difficult and more
critical is for us as artists to continue to meet the inner
demand of our own artistic growth. In short, as success
comes to us, we must be vigilant. Any success postulated on