Are artists egoists?

Camille Pissarro, Children on a Farm,1887 (WikiPedia)

An artist friend asked. “As an artist in displaying my work am I not an egoist?”

Tolle says that emotion and thoughts (I would say heart-mind) are not necessarily ego, but they can be. “They turn into ego only when you identify with them and they take you over completely, that is to say, when they become ‘I’.” – ANE pp131-132

My view is that each of us is part of God’s Creativity, and our creativity is part of that Creativity. As channels of God’s 3Cs, Caring, Creativity & Criticality (corresponding to the Humanities, the Arts & the Sciences) we can egoistically get in the way – or not. The artist’s lower self, pride for example, can get in the way or not – in delivering the artists experience – as in all other aspects of life. Any act, in whichever of the the Cs, can be holy and sacred – or immoral, as evidenced for example by scientists who have admitted to falsifying evidence.

The other thing to remember is that ego has a neutral meaning – it’s what stops us bumping into the furniture – i.e. as in some forms of psychology it is that part of the triadic model of self (ego, superego and id) that enables our dealings with the real, concrete world.

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More about the 3Cs – HERE