By Amy Williams

As I prepare for a December exhibit of artwork in Charleston, my mind creates doubt and I wonder to myself: “Why did I commit to this?” I criticize myself and when I show what work I’ve done to others, they are often full of all kinds of ideas on what I could and should be doing. When the New Year comes, I say to myself, ‘I am not making art anymore! I will play my recorder and accordion, do yoga… but no more paintings or dollmaking or knitting.’ (I know when I am saying this that it is not true.)

So then I think of what inspires me to create. Whether I am making a doll for an exhibit or knitting a scarf for a friend or making a handmade greeting card, I am often compelled to create. If I can keep my critical voice at bay, that is.

Create, Create, Create

What inspires me, in addition to my inner drive, is knowing of other artists who create and create and create. One of the things I love most in looking at other artist’s stories is their prolific rate of creation. Whether it’s Andy Warhol or Vincent Van Gogh, Charly Jupiter Hamilton or my Elkview artist mentor Charlotte Chambers Ross, I love to see artists who just paint and paint and paint. Of course, being prolific involves more than just painting. My in-house muse Mark Wolfe plays music almost every day and weaves his artistic bent into his graphic design work and his fine art.

Charlotte is in her 80’s, relatively unknown as the art field goes, yet she is one of my favorite artists. I met her when I was a writer for the newspaper, and I had not yet put a brush to the paper (except in my grade school days). But she became my spiritual art mother — someone who had created through many years, many relationships, many moves, many changes. There are periods of her work that I love, and others I am not so drawn to. But that’s part of the joy of it all. She just keeps working and showing and going.

Part of being a great artist is having an audience of people who think your work is great. Being dead helps, too. But regardless of that, being a great artist is just working and never giving up. Gotta go paint now!

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