A FAUSTIAN BARGAIN? DOING YOUR ART?

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Submitted Date 11/13/2019
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A Faustian Bargain? Doing Your Art?

Some believe this etching by Rembrandt may be of Dr. Faustus receiving an inspiration.

My favorite things in life don't cost any money. It's really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.
Steve Jobs

Finding time to do your work and then sitting down (or standing up) and doing it are the two most important things you can do as an artist. Your art has to be your top priority or close to the top. Otherwise, the work will never get done.

While this should not be a major struggle, it often is. When I was first married I tried to work at night after a grueling day at my job, but my wife kept coming into my office and interrupting me. She knew that my art was important to me because it was one of the main reasons she had been attracted to me. But once we were married, her needs became paramount.

So one night, she asked me if there was something she could do for me because I had been so helpful to her. This seemed like a good time to bring up my need for time alone so I could work on my art. I replied, "I need a couple of hours, every couple of days just to work on my art. So if you could just let me do that during those times without disturbing me, that would be wonderful."

After I said this, I looked over at her and instead of quietly listening and absorbing what I had said, her eyes were full of tears. Then she cried for a solid hour (not an exaggeration). So instead of getting any work done that night, I had to comfort her.

A week later when we talked about this again, she became quite angry and said that I was screwed up if I wanted to have time to myself. So I began to learn to avoid her when I needed to work. I created when she was asleep which meant I got less sleep but I did get my work done. Although I did not realize it at the time, this spelled the beginning of the end of our marriage.

Everyone's situation is different, but don't be surprised if people feel threatened by your artwork or jealous. It is true that during the time you do your work, they are excluded. But, I believe, it is healthy to not try to do everything together. When you work alone you get ideas you can bring back to a relationship and share with the other person.

This only works, of course, if both people are adults. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

As I wrote in my last article here at WriteSpike, spouses, children, relatives, friends, organizations, work, etc. will make a long list of demands on your time and often try to make you feel guilty if you don't do what they want -- which they rarely feel is unjustified, although they may object to your devotion to your work.

I sometimes think that we artists have to make a kind of Faustian bargain with the people around us. Let me explain.

The Faust legend goes back five hundred years, yet even now movies, comics, etc. are being made that are based on this legend. Since the year 2000, for example, ten movies have been filmed that draw on the Faust story.

Doctor Faust or Faustus in English, was a historical figure who lived from about 1480 to about 1540. While he was real his story has become so cloaked in legend, the story of his life has entered the realm of myth. He did travel around Europe as a magician, an alchemist, a doctor of philosophy (which was the name for science then) and as an astrologer. His performances must have been spectacular as his reputation kept on growing so much so the Catholic Church (during the time of Martin Luther and the reformation) decided he was in league with the devil.

Years after this death the legend evolved in this manner:
Dr. Faust was a learned man who had studied most of the known knowledge but decided he wanted more, more than the books he read and more than normal daily life could give him. So he made a deal with the devil. In earlier versions, he was seen as a heretic.

In the later romantic telling of the story, he was seen as a heroic figure who dared to discover knowledge no matter what the price.

In Goethe's reworking of the story...Faust becomes a dissatisfied intellectual who yearns for "more than earthly meat and drink" in his life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust

Put this way, I have often thought that I made such a bargain, in a way. My Faustian bargain was this: If I could have twenty hours a week to myself, I would then put up with just about anything -- from parents, siblings, my wife, my job, my school work -- during the rest of the time.

SOME QUOTES FROM FAUST
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!"

"As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live."

"A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart."

"There are but two roads that lead to an important goal and to the doing of great things: strength and perseverance. Strength is the lot of but a few privileged men; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time."

English Translations by John Anster

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