Nathan posted a video of a poem called Bluebird. It got me to thinking about artist as art.
I think the greatest disservice to creative minds is when they are convinced by others that they themselves are inexorably tied to their work. They get all the credit and all the responsibility for the work. That pressure breaks any artist that tries to carry the weight of it. I think the artists that do make it through, that seem to have the happiest lives, are the ones that have found a way of releasing themselves from those ties.

When you are very young, you are at the happiest creative period in your life. You can spend an entire day drawing a picture. When you're done you can walk away. Mom can hang it on the fridge. You could give it to a stranger that caught your fancy. It can sit with a pile of papers until it is thrown out. As a child, you were as unattached to the product of creation as you were the source. As creative adults, we try to seek the source, trick our way into its heart. It rarely works. You can't force creativity. All that is left is for us to work, and hope that the creative spark shows up.