11.

WORK, WORK, WORK

The artist Sister Mary Corita Kent said, “The only rule is work. If you work, it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.”

I have tried every conceivable way to conquer work-block—that fear of working, which is a fear of failure. There’s only one method that works: Just work. And keep working.

Every artist and writer I know claims to work in their sleep. I do all the time. Jasper Johns famously said, “One night I dreamed that I painted a large American flag, and the next morning I got up and I went out and bought the materials to begin it.” Just think: You might have been given a whole career in your dreams and not heeded it! It doesn’t matter how scared you are; everyone is scared. Work, you big baby! Work is the only thing that banishes the curse of fear. As Anne Lamott writes, “Butt in chair. Start each day anywhere. Let yourself do it badly. Just take one passage at a time. Get butt back in chair.”

TOKYO, JAPAN - JANUARY 25: Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama sits working on a new painting, in front of other newly finished paintings in her studio, on January 25, 2012 in Tokyo, Japan. Yayoi Kusama, who suffers from mental health problems and lives in a hospital near her studio, is one of today's most highly revered and popular of Japanese artists. She is one of the world's top selling living female artists breaking records in the millions. A major retrospective of her work is on display at Tate Modern in London through June 5, 2012. (Photo by Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert/Getty Images)

Even under long-term mental health care, Yayoi Kusama has been prolific throughout her career. (Photographed in her studio by Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, 2012)