The Myth of the Solitary Artist Is a Lie

Charleton Heston as Michelangelo in "The Agony and The Ecstasy"

The myth of the solitary artist, suffering alone for their art, is mostly malarkey.

For every genius that you see, there is an entire ecosystem that you don't see; of supportive friends or family, a coterie of like-minded peers, an army of professionals around them who also have to do their jobs competently in order for the genius, The Artist, to look as brilliant as they do.

If you're laboring under the idea that it takes something away from your artistic legitimacy to have support, stop it. You're torturing yourself for no good reason.

Most people who know me well are aware of my lifelong fascination with Michelangelo. I've forgotten more about the painting of the Sistine Chapel than most normal people bother to learn. I've read his books of poetry (including the ones he wrote when he was slaving away on the Chapel). I can think of no better example for how the artist is misrepresented as a solitary genius. While a certainly a genius, Michelangelo was far from solitary, employing entire teams of people both in his sculpture studio as well as the Sistine Chapel. 

Perhaps you've even seen him portrayed by Charleton Heston in "The Agony and the Ecstasy," lying on his back on the scaffolding with paint dripping into his eyes, laboring alone through the night. It's a lovely film, but it's not accurate. And this inaccuracy, and others like it, propagate a false notion of the artist who is entirely alone.

Michelangelo had several assistants to help him accomplish the feat of the Sistine Chapel. Their names are documented: Francesco Granacci, his trusted second in command. Pietro Rosselli, a plaster worker, who refinished the ceiling and built all the scaffolding required. Bastiano da Sangallo, Giuliano Bugiardini, Agnolo di Donnino and Jacopo del Tedesco, young painters from various Florentine workshops. The average person doesn't know their names, and you'll probably forget them by the time you stop reading this article, but the awesome work of the Sistine Chapel would not have happened without them. From the tearing down of the old ceiling, to the application of the new plaster, to the careful transferring of the outlines from sketch paper to the ceiling, to the mixing of the pigments, he needed more than just his two hands to accomplish it.

As a creative, you need all kinds of partners. You need emotional partners, friends and family who prop you up when you're discouraged. You need intellectual partners, peers to bounce ideas off of. You need executional partners, sometimes, when the job is too big for just your two hands. It takes nothing away from your creative mojo to admit this and lean on it. In the end, you'll be better for it. And this is a truth that carries across most, if not all, creative disciplines. 

It's not just about delegating, although it can be (and most artists are notoriously terrible at it). It's about opening up your process to the support that's actually available.  Even Michelangelo didn't do his greatest works alone.