I just started taking Jessie Nilo’s Art Ministry 101 class over at ArtFruition.com. As part of the class, Rory Noland’s classic The Heart of the Artist is required reading. I’ve read it before, but it’s been a while so I am going through it again. On the very first page of the book, Noland shares a quote from Irving Stone that I think really sums up the artist’s life. I share it hear to provoke thought and discussion:
“But then no artist is normal, if he were, he wouldn’t be an artist. Normal men don’t create works of art. They eat, sleep, hold down routine jobs, and die. You are hypersensitive to life and nature; that’s why you are able to interpret for the rest of us. But if you are not careful, that very hypersensitiveness will lead you to your destruction. The strain of it breaks every artist in time.”
What say you? Has Irving Stone Hit the proverbial nail on its proverbial head?
