Balance in the life of an artist

[Elizabeth Schott]

See Michael, this is what my girlfriends and I always say, we all need a wife!

[Patt Legg]

Ditto to you Beth for Steven. Call mine too. I have 3 close male artist friends and they seem to feel as you do Steven. One "barters" his portraits to hire yard work done at his home. His wife does most of his marketing, mailing, accepting calls, having guest students in her home for his workshops, calls airlines for his reservations, does the housework, yadda yadda.

I do try to make paint my priority and let the things pile up at home. Then it takes me days to play catch up.

Mind you, I am not crying the blues, just searching for THE WAY.

Linda, I like your attitude. Placing yourself unavailable in your studio in your time.

I think I will take this to Dr. Phil.

[Patt Legg]

One more note Beth, I had not yet read your last comment "need a wife". That is hilarious and quite coincidental because that is one of my famous sayings among my friends too. We all need a wife. Ha.

[Mai Ly]

Thanks Beth for bringing this subject up. I feel so much better after reading all the posts. I always struggle to divide my time between my two young children, husband, cooking, cleaning up etc. The kids are 1 and 4, so they pretty much take up all my time. The only time I get to paint is in the middle of the night! There have been times I thought of giving up painting because I feel like I am neglecting my family, and I don't have enough energy to have everything together in the way that I would like them to be. My husband supports and helps me in every way so that I can paint, but it is still difficult when the kids are still young.

I can see now that I am not alone, after reading these posts!

Mai

[Margaret Port]

My children are grown up, I have a very low maintenance house (no carpets, no curtains, no junk lying around, except my many projects) I have a few duties to do each day. ARTIST'S HEAVEN? Yes and NO. My husband thinks that I should try to go to work full time so that I can earn money, oh, and in case I should get lonely and bored. HELP! My paints are calling me.

[ReNae Stueve]

Steven,

Thank you for your observation about choices. It has recently been brought to my attention that I would have been better served had I gotten a BFA instead of following the path that I did. I haven

[Denise Racine]

For years I have been carrying around in my wallet this quote I picked up while reading the biography of Georgia O'Keefe...

"One works (paints) because I suppose it is the most interesting thing one knows how to do. The days one works (paints) are the best days. On the other days one is hurrying through the other things one imagines one has to do to keep one's life going. You get the garden planted. You get the roof fixed. You take the dog to the vet. You spend a day with a friend. You learn to make a new kind of bread. You hunt up photographs for someone who thinks he needs them. You certainly have to do the shopping. You may even enjoy doing such things. You think they have to be done. You even think you have to have some visitors or take a trip to keep from getting queer living alone...(). But always, you are hurrying through these things with a certain amount of aggravation so that you can get at the painting again because that is the high spot - in a way it is what you do all the other things for...The painting is like a thread that runs through all the reasons for all the other things that make one's life."

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Denise, I think Georgia has put it in the most eloquent way. It is right on!

[Michele Rushworth]

Thanks, Denise, for posting that one. It spoke directly to my heart! I feel that way every day.

[Margaret Port]

Thanks Denise,

I feel like that also. I am going to print it out and hang it on my wall.

My mother-in-law always said that I march to the sound of a different drum. I think I've found my fellow marchers on this website.