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And I recognized that the most important thing in my life was to claim myself totally … That means you belong to yourself…. Your center is your center.
Art is everywhere, except it has to pass through a creative mind.
In his study of exceptionally creative people, Howard Gruber (1986) found that a gifted individual oscillates between “two attitudes, both surrendering himself or herself to the requirements of the task and mobilizing every personal resource to surmount its difficulties” (p. 259). Describing the characteristics of people able to perform creative labors, Gruber includes an awareness of the gap between the tangible and the conceivable and the imaginative force required to tackle the seemingly impossible; a commitment of one's considerable talents and resources to fulfilling an intensely felt “special” purpose; feeling the inherent confidence to devote the time, generally a lifetime, to that end; and an intensely high level of aspiration and boldness. Louise Nevelson, who in 1958 became a rock star in the art world at the age of fifty-nine, is unquestionably in this category. She put it this way: “I don't think I realized the price that would be demanded for what I wanted…. I am closer to the work than to anything on earth. That's the marriage” (Nevelson 1976, pp. 42-43).
Woman artist. Unlike many of the few women artists recognized as great before her, Nevelson lacked an artist father, husband, or patron who