I would take Progoff’s observation (above) a step further. As creative outsiders, when our relationship with our creative work breaks down, our interior and exterior life breaks down.

Years ago a subscriber to Heron Dance wrote that he had noticed that my art had taken on a dark, somber, heavy tone. Was I ok? I wrote him back that all was fine. It wasn’t. I was indeed struggling. My life was spinning out of control. I was going in too many directions. I was dependent on too many people – employees, book printers, marketers. I couldn’t seem to get my life, or my art, back on track.

If that happened now, I hope I would have the discipline and courage to step back, relax, think. And then, after a break, when my creative energy had been restored, focus on my art in solitude.

Some of us, when things aren’t going well, work harder. We dig ourselves into a hole, and then, when that doesn’t get us in harmony with our art, we dig harder. Rarely good.

Some days in working, despite all apparent favorable conditions, the work incurs one disaster after another. Those are the days when, as my wife and I say, “The aspects are not with us.” At such times, it is better to accept that state of affairs and withdraw from the workshop.
- Oppi A. Untracht, enamelist, craftsman.