So many myths surround how an artist produces a work of art, whether it's a painting, a novel, a musical piece or whatever. Hollywood depicts the artist going insane as he attacks a canvas, struggling to realize his vision. Or the artist, in a sinister way, steals the ideas of another to create his masterpiece. Or the artist has some unhealthy addiction or obsession that constantly interferes with the creation of his work. And of course, they always end up dying some terrible death, a pauper, never fully realizing the artistic vision within them. Lots of drama. It's great for the movies. Very little truth.

The truth is that the artist does go through his emotional ups and downs, but without insanity or any evildoing setting in. It's work, to be sure, but no more or less dramatic than fixing a car engine or balancing your checkbook. The caveat is whether the artist knows his basic artistic tools as well as the car mechanic knows the workings of an engine. But there is one more aspect to it.

Unlike the mechanic, who can fix engines day in and day out without failure, an artist needs to breathe. If he doesn't, if he works every day, non-stop and relentlessly pursuing his art, his art will fail. Why? Because unlike the car mechanic, who can rotely do the same job over and over again (because engines are pretty much all the same, one to another), the artist is creating newly with each new painting or song or book. Even though the artist is utilizing the same basic tools, from one artistic creation to the next, it still requires new vision, new emotions, etc. So, if you tried to put the artist on "automatic", creating over and over again, without breathing in between, then the art suffers and will decline. And so will the artist.

I have found that for myself. I'm on a deadline to produce X number of paintings for an upcoming show. I'm cranking out four to five paintings a week. Suddenly, I'm toast. I have to walk away and go do something else...anything else!! All that happened was that I bled all of the creativeness and vision out of me, without refilling the reservoir. I bled myself into a temporary artistic death.

You see it happen with actors, who years after they "retired" somehow make a "comeback". Chances are they needed to breathe. I had been avidly following a young, up-and-coming science fiction writer. He promised a series of three amazing novels documenting a single storyline. The first and second books were published to rave reviews. Amazing work. Then he dropped out and the third novel, to this day, has not yet been written or published. What happened?? Well, barring some massive tragedy, chances are he drained his "well" of creativity in an effort to get the third novel written without replenishing it and then decided he had "lost" it, never to return. Sad.

So, there's one thing to come into your stride as an artist and become successful. But once there, maintaining it becomes a matter of taking care of yourself (much like you would take care of your physical health) and knowing when to step back and breathe. Then, the production of new work won't suffer and will probably continue to be better than the last one.