All great art is born from obsession
That’s a very broad statement and perhaps I am slightly overstating it, but it seems to be the conclusion to draw after reading “The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa” and watching Andy Goldsworthy’s “Rivers and Tides”. Go ahead and think of an artist and decide if the term obsessive could be applied to them. OK for those of you that didn’t think of Van Gogh you likely didn’t have any problems coming up with a different one. You can call it passion, dedication or obsession but it is a large part of what we celebrate about an artist and there work. Take for instance the concept of a painting a day, where an artist tries to create a finished painting every day and provide it for sale on the Internet. You could argue that this is really about working as an artist but as consumers of that art it is the purchaser who has helped decide that the process augments the value. I’m sure there have been artists who have attempted a painting a day but have fallen be the wayside likely because they lacked what may be truly required, obsession.