Marrying my mistress
January 28, 2010
I recently read a book on creativity that was pretty useless aside from one tidbit; a quote from James Goldsmith that says “When a man marries his mistress, he creates a vacancy”.
A lot of people I’ve talked to disagree with this, and I’m not sure why. In the book, the quote referenced pursuing your passion as a full time job, thereby creating a vacancy for another passion… or something less exciting than a passion that just happens to fill that extracurricular void.
Taking on art full time has always been fruitful for me, but never fulfilling. Its awesome to work my ass off in preparation for a convention and then make great money selling my work, but it isn’t something I could do full time. It gives me nothing to look forward to. The days and weeks after cons are usually spent in a state of creative bankruptcy… like I’ve shot my proverbial wad and thats the end of it. Pressure to come up with and execute original ideas is frickin’ awful, and I’m honestly surprised I do it for fun.
So back to the “mistress”. We all have one. Some people knit, others smoke, cook, garden, you get the point. Whatever yours is, shut your eyes, go to lala land, and imagine an average day in your life after working at your passion 40-70 hours per week until you retire. Seem like fun? Get your ass back to lala land and visualize again… this time realistically. Its like a pizza lover getting a job at a pizza joint and then never wanting to see one again after some time.
