Eating for Art's Sake

"Hunger is good discipline and you learn from it" 

 - Ernest Hemingway,  A Moveable Feast

Does hunger feed your creative Muse?  Famous artists starve whilst pursuing the dream, best-selling novelists write in their birthday suits, and fanatical climbers sleep in hammocks precariously secured to cliff-tops.  All to satisfy their passion, that hunger which drives them to chase their dreams.  Myself, I love good food and wine, I get glassy-eyed over a fabulous supper and dream about it for weeks afterwards and rave about to everyone who crosses my path.  And, writing seems much-more-muchier on a full stomach.  So, do we really need to starve for our art, and is hunger-induced prose infinitely better than the literary musings of a fully-lined belly?

I pondered this question whilst sitting in a cigar and whiskey bar, dining on oysters, the most sublime truffle burger, and champagne.  I can unequivocally say that sometimes excess does improve the grey cells, and people are happier when indulging.  And at the risk of watching my Inner Bohemian throw herself on the floor in a weeping mess, I'll admit something else... I love all things vintage but physical starvation for creative juices is not a belief I follow.  

These days I think our artistic hunger comes from the deep recesses of our grey matter versus our bellies.  I hanker to finish my book, I need to write every day, I must have coffee and hot chocolate...and if I don't have champagne - I will die.  See, all these things are necessary evils in my publishing journey, and I am always hungry...and there's irony in this post.  Once I do start writing, I can't stop... I forget to eat and drink, I forget where I am, who I am...and sometimes I even forget to dress.

How about you?  Do you suffer for your creative Muse?

My Bohemian Muse...inconsolable in fire engine red.
She's so dramatic sometimes...

Photo courtesy via weheartit.