You write: “Too many artists, not enough consumers of art. So why not just do art for art’s sake?” To which I answer, twisting a cliché for the purposes of this discussion, Right on the money!

The particular fellowship for which I applied is a no-strings-attached disbursement of funds entailing no academic work (aside, perhaps, from the application which, being an intellectual exercise, may skirt that territory).

In the four months I spent on my application, I was indeed simultaneously “laboring on a divinely inspired creation” (I like your language there!). I’m always laboring on some such thing. Meanwhile, the prospect of enjoying generous patronage (enough cash, by the way, to materially sustain my creative endeavors for several years, entirely free of financial worries – I am a frugal soul) made it seem not unwise to devote my energies in part to securing such a fellowship. My first novel took four years from conception to publication. My second, six years. This is long, slow, all-consuming work, and in the meantime one must survive. (This does not contradict my essential belief that impecuniousness is all but a given for most artists.) Remuneration, as the fellowship application went, was indeed the incitement — but not for love of cash; rather: for love of liberty, love of freedom to create, love of being allowed to make the most of one’s time artistically, in short: love of my art.

And if hope of remuneration prompted me to apply, the application itself was far more than a mercenary undertaking. I saw how I might, while trying to secure a fellowship, seize an opportunity to meditate at length, and at some remove, on my current writing project. In this way the application became a further aspect of my main endeavor.

If this was ultimately an “unsuccessful” attempt, if it resulted in something less than a work of art (i.e. a mere fellowship application – and a rejected one at that), it was nevertheless artful work, and ultimately distilled my very articles of faith as a novelist. Consequently, I don’t feel that anything was squandered in this attempt. My time and energy were put to good use. And the beauty of the whole experience was in the way it allowed me to successfully articulate my vision (perhaps mostly to myself). This is what I was getting at in my post of April 12, “How to Achieve Even While Losing.”

While I’m pleased you’ve clarified your earlier comment, I remain grateful for that comment, given the (hopefully inspiring) apologia it induced.

Here’s to “imaginative flight.”

Cheers, ~Mark

Career, vocation, whatever – too many artists, not enough paying consumers of art. So why not just do art for art’s sake, and whatever we title it – vocation,hobby, job, sublime waste of time – makes no difference.

A “fellowship” is not art. You could have been laboring instead on a divinely inspired creation instead of a fellowship application.