Professionalism , Art and Love

     Continuing with my subject of  The War of Art, a book I cannot put down, Steven Pressfield has a chapter entitled "For Love of the Game" where he touches on professionalism.  He wrote: "To clarify a point about professionalism: The professional, though he accepts money, does his work out of love.  He has to love it.  Otherwise he wouldn't devote his life to it of his own free will."
     This reading brings my thoughts back to The Woodstock School of Art where my teacher, Chinese master painter HongNian Zhang, explained to us that we should paint what we love.  When he was away in China, his wife Lois Woolley taught the class alone and our model set up was a chef chopping up food.  When he returned and saw our subject posing, he was pleased and said, "Look at this.  This is love".
     I believe I had a hard time understanding this at first, along with his asking what was the "story" of my painting (as I had my apple girl dangling in the middle of a blank canvas, story? what? I have to think up a story, too?), and, "what are you talking about?", as I would be putting detail in a particular area (probably the wrong one, too).  But, as I am learning more, and becoming wiser, I realize love in our work is crucial to get the results we are looking for.  I've said it before in my blog, that I know when my art is going right because I fall in love with it.  I must remember to keep love in my art, when I choose my subject, when I create my story theme and as I create.