[Blarg]

Interesting post. I think you misinterpreted what I said about what a real artist does. In fact you seem to repeat my own definition. I didn't set being a real artist against getting a "real job," as if the two were strictly opposite or art was not in itself work and an estimable sort of it at that. I even gave the example of Wallace Stevens, who held a job in insurance his whole life and was one of the major poets of his century.

A real artist has to sh*t or get off the pot, is what I meant. He has to work through whatever it is holding him back, and still produce. You can't be an artist theoretically; you must actually do the thing. And often on deadline. Otherwise you are at best artistic, not an artist. A cabinet or garage full of unfinished or unpolished projects, to me, does not signify an artist. It might signify an artistic temperament, but one with something vital missing. It might signify someone who is kidding himself or has an amusing hobby. Myself, I'm one or both of the latter. To me, a real artist, by contrast, by definition sees projects to completion.

The world is full of dabblers and daydreamers. I wouldn't go so far as to call them artists, and don't think that's any slight. Artists complete; dabblers and daydreamers need merely start.