Passion for art

[Kimberly Dow]

Hi folks, this is my first post after my introduction, so be easy on me please.

I just finished reading the thread on artists being different. I was going to post there, but re-thought it.

I have never known a social worker, mechanic, contractor, lawyer, etc., who does not wish for an extra day off. They look forward to vacations, weekends and the possibility of winning the lottery. I do not know many other artists personally, but it seems like it would be an impossible career if you did not love it. So many people hate their chosen jobs. I cannot imagine hating painting and still being able to do it.

I speak only for myself, but maybe some of you are the same? To my shame, I hate family vacations because I usually cannot paint. If I go more than a couple of days without painting I do not feel emotionally stable, (crabby mommy). If I was fabulously rich I would still paint. I cannot sit and enjoy a movie without trying to decide how I would mix that color I just saw. Everything I see I mentally picture on a canvas. When I get my alone time to paint, whether I suceed on the canvas or not, I come home a happy and fufilled wife & mother. If I haven't been able to paint for some family reason or other I will usually lug the supplies home from the studio and sit at the coffee table painting and spending time with the family. Or when they are complaining that I have gotten obsessive.

So, what may be obsessive to my commercial contractor husband just because he can sit back and immerse himself in a movie and I cannot - I think is just passion. Could anyone do this job without loving it? Many careers for people are just to make money - is it possible for someone to do that with art? I would like to know if there has been a sucessful artist known to have despised their chosen career.