The Most Important Thing is Work.

haha i have been unemployed for almost six months

me too

That's okay cuz I am pretty sure that this is bullshit.

I think it's true.

Andy Warhol was a virgin, BTW.

His diaries were dull.

Well he should have WORKED harder on them.

If my life isn't basically happy (finances, relationships, etc) I find it very hard to be creatively productive.

what do you creatively produce? (seriously)

'Whether you be a painter, writer, singer, dj, actor etc; how true is this statement?'

I guess people come first, inc. yourself (welfare, commitments etc.), but after that yes, my personal creative work is the most important thing in my life - it's crucial to my lifestyle and it's how i define myself largely.

'If all around you is essentially failing (frienships, lovelife, finances etc) is that beneficial in itself to you and/or the creative 'thing' you are working on?'

Could be, fuelling the desire to succeed and triumph over adversity etc. But being in a relatively content state can be equally benficial to the creative process if not more so, I'm convinced. The 'starving, tortured artist' cliche isn't necessarily de rigeur.

'Can something creative be improved by a tunnel-vision all-or-bust fuck-everything-else-but-my-work approach?'

Not sure, I'm a 'last minute' guy so don't know any other way. But working on my own projects in my own time I DO see how I can produce better work, having contemplated and planned it more. I definitely get things done by shutting everything else out for a good few hours though.

'Is it necessary for the 'other stuff' in your life to be 'a success' in order for your creativity to thrive?'

See earlier answer - not necessar(il)y

'Isn't The Work what, at the end of the day, the stuff that really matters?'

Personally without My Work I feel that I would have very little to show for myself and my life would mean less.

creative productivity = writing that just isn't in my journal; finished crochet/stitching projects, etc.

i find it hard to believe, pardon the pun, that warhol was a virgin.

the most important thing is that nothing's important.

I would get a lot more creative work done if I didn't have a full time + job, a girlfriend, friends, etc. I love those things (except the job, maybe) and wouldn't give them up, but sometimes it makes it hard to make enough time for everything.

Andy Warhol had lots of boyfriends!

it will be forever amusing that Andy Warhol's museum is in Pittsburgh. but I guess you can't put all the museums in NYC.

he was born in pittsburgh.

i know. so was i. and Pittsburgh is not very Warhol

whatever you say, queer as folk.

well, it's no louisville!

yeah, louisville's still kinda homophobic. : (

"We shall live through the long
procession of days before us, and through the long evenings; we
shall patiently bear the trials that fate imposes on us; we shall
work for others without rest, both now and when we are old; and
when our last hour comes we shall meet it humbly, and there,
beyond the grave, we shall say that we have suffered and wept,
that our life was bitter, and God will have pity on us. Ah, then
dear, dear Uncle, we shall see that bright and beautiful life; we
shall rejoice and look back upon our sorrow here; a tender
smile—and—we shall rest. I have faith, Uncle, fervent,
passionate faith. We shall rest. We shall rest. We shall hear
the angels. We shall see heaven shining like a jewel. We
shall see all evil and all our pain sink away in the great
compassion that shall enfold the world. Our life will be as
peaceful and tender and sweet as a caress. I have faith; I have
faith. My poor, poor Uncle Vanya, you are crying! You have
never known what happiness was, but wait, Uncle Vanya, wait!
We shall rest. We shall rest. We shall rest."

These are the last lines of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, and I've never quite understood them, at least in relation to everything that came before. The whole play is taken up with faded pseduo-aristocrats inventing crises for themselves, mooing about, settling old scores, indulging ridiculous fantasies—everything, that is, aside from doing a little work. The state of the family's finances reflects these priorities. The play's final scene, when the beautiful young professor's wife has gone and the impending drunkard doctor Astrov has toasted himself one last glass of vodka and departed, sees a calm and peaceful scene that flows directly from Vanya and Sonia's decision to sit down and quietly put their books in order. Carrying the one; totting up columns; that kind of thing. A guitar strums gently in the background. Work appears to be the one thing to give the characters any sense of rest or serenity. So why Sonia's still moaning about it I don't know. The monologue is always played straight - as you have to; Sonia's a very play-it-straight kind of girl; and anyway, it's almost impossible to wink at the audience during any monologue, much less this one - but I wonder if Chekhov hasn't given her a speech that expresses precisely the opposite of what's really going on.

I don't think that "work" in the Chekhov sense is at all comparable to "work" in the Warhol sense. The latter seems more of an existential statement (a la Camus' essay on sisyphus) that it is the process, the idea, the fact of having a goal that matters (whether or not that goal is achieved. Of course this is a bit of a catch 22, because if you really believe that the goal doesn't matter--ever--then you can never do any "work".

friends, family, and laughter are important. everything else, including your dj career, is not.

I like work -- when I like work. I find work easier and more productive when I'm not very happy with the rest of my life. It's an issue of time, I guess. I don't have the energy to be happy *and* work hard.

Yes. The most important thing is work. As in activity. As in doing it. Making it. If you're not busting ass, you'll never get anything done. Even if it sucks, make it. Finish it, just on the general principal of seeing it through. You may surprise yourself.

Fuck, the prismacolors are calling me. Later.

I wish I'd spent less time on "art" and more time on having good relationships.

I mean, art is nice, and I'm proud of it and all, but really, it doesn't exactly keep me warm at night, now does it?

I would doubt this, as I would put family and friends first but I do agree with stevems statement of 'it's how I define myself', knowing this gives my creativity the role of an anchor through the times that I become a bit 'lost' in life.

I first read this thread title to be a bit like "ARBEIT MACHT FREI". I was wrong.