Time away from painting

You know there are all kinds of theories out there about being an artist and the correlation between the amount of art you make in a day, week, month or year and how that amount reflects on the depth of your being a "true" artist or not. I have a problem with these theories mainly because they are either written by an artist who makes tons of art a week or day and thinks that is the making of any great artist just because of the fact that they are making large quantities of images and they want to stroke that fact, or they are written by someone who is outside the art world looking in and making assumptions.

I am an artist who makes art when I can and feel inspired to do so. When that light is "on" I tend to make many paintings and rather quickly...responding to the stimulation and available time to create. Lately, after traveling to China , then returning to the US and then moving, I have not painted in almost two months time. This has gotten me to a place of feeling like I cannot wait to get on my next canvas and also feeling somewhat horrified by what will I make after such a long hiatus.

This is not the first time I have had long bouts of not making art. Things happen in life and they don't all harken the impulse or the time and space to create anything other than written passages with random sketches thrown in for good measure on small pieces of paper or pads, envelope backs ...whatever.

Each time I return to the canvas, whether after a long time or short, there is that fear that whatever it was inside that I had going that helped me to create my last painting might be completely gone, and my past art was fluke. It is absolutely stronger feeling after a long period of absence, but there none the lass each time.

The magic seems to return with new insights after a long hiatus, and I often feel like I am being shown a new and exciting part of myself as a result and remarkably, the paintings take a leap. Anyone reading this who can relate and who may judge themselves harshly for not making a painting every day , judge not and follow your inner and outer callings for when and what to create. We are still artists and our art is fueled by the life we are experiencing while stepping away from our canvases.