My Muse Gets Pushed and Pulled Around

The common romantic perception of my life as an artist is that I must spend about:

• 80% of my time painting leisurely in a lovely landscape, breathing in the fresh air, sunning myself with a glass of wine in one hand and paint brush in the other hand
• Then I spend 15% of my time going to parties and receptions where my work is applauded and admired and sold, every time
• and then I spend the remaining 5% of my time involved in naughty exploits that us artists are oh so famous for

Well... maybe I shouldn’t kill the myth.  It’s so sexy and intriguing. The fact is that I too often experience the push and pull of my creative muse, an internal battle with my own motivation and inspiration. It’s not uncommon for artists to struggle with their own desire to create.  There are so many distractions and higher concerns that tug at one’s attention.  Bills must be paid, leads followed up on for future business, previous projects completed.  Painting can get pushed aside.  Yet it’s at the core of everything I'm about. The buzz killing reality is that I spend about 10% maybe 12% of my time actually painting. The rest of my time and energy is devoted to running a challenging business and devising ways to grow this unusual enterprise. Even though I haven’t performed the bean counting exercise of logging my actual creative time, my sense is that creative time is increasing. That’s the good news; my muse will continue to have more physical and psychic space to do her thing and to complete the series that I’m creating just over the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin.