You may think that being an artist is just one long round of hedonistic pleasure, but have you ever stopped to consider the immense stresses experienced during the creative process?

When was the last time you had to decide what colour the bikini should be on the tarty Angel of Grimethorpe? Should the dog with it’s leg cocked against a lampost be a Whippet or a “heinz 57” mongrel? The nightmare of having to mix dozens of shades of mucky grey to represent dirt-stained brickwork, dirt-stained roads and pavements, dirt-stained pigeons, etc, has to be experience to be believed. 😉

And it’s not just stress – there’s the work-related accidents to consider too…

The other day I narrowly avoided serious injury when my wife saw I’d got red paint on the front of my new shirt, there’s the repetitive strain injury from having to constantly pick up a coffee cup and ponder the next stage of the painting, the frightening risk of splashing yourself with pigment and being mistaken for a plague victim when out in public, and, of course, the ever-present fear of visitors to the studio making “constructive” remarks on your work thereby causing severe damage to your fists when you beat the visitors to death… 🙂

So it’s not all relaxation and pleasure being an artist – far from it. I think I once saw it placed by statisticians amongst the top ten most dangerous pastimes in the world, ranked just below bomb disposal… 😮

Next time you’re passing a Gallery selling contemporary art why not pop in and show your support for “Artists in Need” by buying a bit of artwork (anything, except by Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin as their work is shite) 😀