Otto Rank, one of Freud's followers, wrote a book entitled "Art and Artist". His thesis was that the creation of art comes from a duality: the artist's vision and what the public will consume. Each artist has to find for themselves their place on this continuum. They can often be competing ends.

There is no "right" place to be on the continuum. So, as Mmario reports, some artists create just to satisfy their urge to create. As we all know there are talented people (artists) whose goal is to create a product that will be accepted by the masses.

Each artist must decide for themselves how much of their art will be simply what they desire to create and how much will be something they wish others to appreciate.

So for most artists, the audience is important. For some, it is not. Van Gogh didn't sell many paintings in his lifetime. Perhaps the passion we see in his paintings now is a result of them being what his spirit had to do.

Roger in Baltimore