{"id":153,"date":"2010-11-17T09:13:40","date_gmt":"2010-11-17T09:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/2010\/11\/the-drive-to-create.html"},"modified":"2010-11-17T09:13:40","modified_gmt":"2010-11-17T09:13:40","slug":"the-drive-to-create","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/11\/the-drive-to-create.html","title":{"rendered":"The drive to create"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Raphael<\/a><\/span>I recently came upon a statement by Raphael Soyer that wonderfully conveys the nature and the power of the drive to create. Born into bitter poverty in a Jewish family in Russia in the time of the pogroms, Soyer (1899-1987) became one of America’s great realist painters, best-known for his haunting depictions of the faces of the Depression. Here’s what he said about his life as an artist, towards the end of his life:<\/p>\n

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I’ve painted for a very long time, but I don’t get tired or bored by it. I love to do it. If I don’t paint one day, I don’t feel well physically or mentally. My eyes bother me when I don’t paint.But when I paint a full day, I feel satisfied and everything seems to be OK. I would never stop, never retire. I can’t see how people can retire; I can’t understand that.<\/i> <\/div>\n
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The same drive seems to have run in the family.<\/div>\n
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My brother Moses died while he was painting. He was actually working on a painting, and the last words he said were to the model, “Phoebe, don’t frown.” Then he died. He worked to the very last minute<\/i>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I feel the same way about writing. If I let a day go by without writing, I don’t feel so good, physically or mentally. When I do write – especially if I get something on its way to publication – I feel as if I have had the best possible physical workout, as if I have swum a couple of miles.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I’m with Raphael Soyer on the subject of retirement. Do what you love, and you’ll never want to retire.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Source: <\/i>Elaine King (ed) Artists Observed<\/i> (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1986) p.16<\/div>\n
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In the Studio by Raphael Soyer (1943) via Forum Gallery<\/a><\/i><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently came upon a statement by Raphael Soyer that wonderfully conveys the nature and the power of the drive to create. Born into bitter poverty in a Jewish family in Russia in the time of the pogroms, Soyer (1899-1987) became one of America’s great realist painters, best-known for his haunting depictions of the faces…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,34,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conscious-living","category-creativity","category-imagination"],"yoast_head":"\nThe drive to create - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/11\/the-drive-to-create.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The drive to create - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I recently came upon a statement by Raphael Soyer that wonderfully conveys the nature and the power of the drive to create. Born into bitter poverty in a Jewish family in Russia in the time of the pogroms, Soyer (1899-1987) became one of America’s great realist painters, best-known for his haunting depictions of the faces…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/11\/the-drive-to-create.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-11-17T09:13:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Moss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The drive to create - Dream Gates","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/11\/the-drive-to-create.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The drive to create - Dream Gates","og_description":"I recently came upon a statement by Raphael Soyer that wonderfully conveys the nature and the power of the drive to create. 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}