Artists: what motivates you? Why do you craft what you do?

creating something is not what i aim to do. personally i feel like an accidental artist. it has to come out. it boils up inside and some times you just let your hands go where they want and you find out where that is once you are done.

I don’t think I could make it as an artist for my livelihood…because i can’t tell you the last time i deliberately tried to do something beautiful. it’s like forcing someone to love you, or trying to say exaclty the right the thing at a party. the opposite always occurs.

Because I don’t know what else to do.

I’m motivated by what’s going on around me. What’s happening to me. What I do to others. Ect.

I draw and paint for the simple pleasure of translating an idea to paper. Or just making something that looks nice that I can be proud of.
Having a moment of inspiration and creating an art piece you like is like a rush, almost. You might say it’s like a drug, and artists keep working to experience that rush.

squidcake and operativeq, that’s how i feel exactly <3

I love the feeling of pure joy that it brings me.It’s that simple :)

I do what I do because I’m good at it, I enjoy it and I’m passionate about it.
But it’s sincerely a win-win situation when I get to do what I love while helping other people at the same time. That’s one of my main motivations.
I also don’t know how to do much else and I don’t want to do much else.
So I’m stuck doing the one thing that brings me more happiness than anything else and I’m okay with that. :)

i think there are some artists, that are more about methodology, and in turn do not put as much of themselves into what they create…not because they can’t, but because it’s in self preservation. being the artist is satisfying, but altogether, very draining.

I’m sure for them, it’s more numbers and balances…less feeling and emotion. I wonder if that is what happens when you make it your career.

It is how my brain works. Everything is fodder for creativity. I can’t look at things without seeing an opportunity to create something from it, from it’s function, from it’s form, from the feeling I get about it,...
I actually feel withdrawl like symptoms if it has been awhile between projects, but I usually have a dozen going at any one time.
What is my motivation? It is kind of like loving my children: I can’t help it. It just happens. When I began to do art for a living, I had to let my need for an income motivate me in many ways, but there is still the drive to represent things from my point of view, and that makes me good at what I do, and makes me feel lucky to have had this as my career. The down-side has been that art became work. I still love it, but I seldom do it for the love of it anymore. I produce for profit. When I retire, if I ever do, I will create for myself again.

Hallucinogens motivate me. :)

Ever since I was little, I love making new things out of other things. It started with sewing, making clothes out of fabric, and then moved on to making gifts out of string, yarn, and such. I see designs everywhere I look, and I like to work them into my gifts.

@yarnlady I love that , and wish i could make gifts in abundance or that i was at the receiving end of all of yours!!

Fact from fiction, truth from diction. When I was younger I painted and drew things because I wanted to see how close to “real” I could get it to look. In a sense I was challenging the camera; I always lost. Then I wised up and realized if people wanted something, a portrait, landscape etc., to look like a photo they could have just taken a photo. With art you have a certain artistic license to tweak certain things.

These days it is more of a challenge to my self, to see if I can capture the vision in my head, in part because I want to see how close I can come but also to share some with the world. There are a lot of canvases in my head I have yet to pain, but with luck maybe the world may see them before I am gone. They can see the world in my art head and the story the paintings say.

A lot of times I get inspired and motivated by seeing the great creations other artists make. I love making art because it allows me to leave reality for a bit and be in my own world. Since I’m in college, I stress a decent amount…but I love going to my art classes because I know I’m going to go there and focus only on what I want to create and how to make it work.

Honestly…

It just hits me like a vision. I am floating above it and I can see every nook and cranny.
It is a completed process needing to become substance.

I motivate myself. Because I can.

Music usually, but sometimes an image in my head just must be seen by others that I make it so.

I love the arts because you are creating a fantasy, something not real, but at the same time, it is real. You are creating an alternate reality, where things do exist, just in a different realm. I paint because it brings me somewhere else, and it awakens me to the beautiful colors and light of this world. God has given us an incredible earth, filled with beautiful nature, and bright, outstanding colors. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Not that I don’t love writing