"Art Defined"

Art is a kind of innate drive
that seizes a human being and
makes him it's intrument. The
artist is not a person endowed
with free will who seeks his own
ends, but one who allows art to
realize it's purposes through him.
As a human being he may have
moods and a will and personal
aims, but as an artist he is "man"
in a higher sense--he is "collective
man"--one who carries and shapes
the unconscious, psychic life of
mankind. To perform this difficult
office it is sometimes necessary for
him to sacrifice happiness and
everything that makes life worth
living for the ordinary human being......
The artist's life cannot be other-
wise than full of conflicts, for two
forces are at war within him--on
the one hand the common human
longing for happiness, satisfaction
and security in life, and on the other
a ruthless passion for creation which
may go so far as to override every
personal desire. The lives of artists
are as a rule so highly unsatisfactory--
not to say tragic--because of their
inferiority on the human and personal
side, and not because of a sinister
dispensation. There are hardly any
exceptions to the rule that a person
must pay dearly for the divine gift of
the creative fire.
Carl Gustave Jung---"Psychology and
Literature"