O muse. wherefore art thou.

Figures, palms and ruins, Caneel Bay, St John, 1989. 

The ravages of time has diminished the ebullience of the opening watercolour, but the lyrical quality that remains can be directly attributed to the influence of my muse. 

In an article about the role of the artist's muse, Germaine Greer writes:

A muse is anything but a paid model. The muse in her purest aspect is the feminine part of the male artist, with which he must have intercourse if he is to bring into being a new work. She is the anima to his animus, except that, in a reversal of gender roles, she penetrates or inspires him and he gestates and brings forth, from the womb of the mind...Artists have painted their wives over and over again, but their wives were their subjects rather than their muses.

At its best, the relationship between the artist and his muse is a platonic love affair. It is not dependent intellectual understanding, nor of conscious influence. The muse has no desire to create of her own accord. She displays none of the censoring influence of those who want to create but can't. She is that compassionate smile that leads the artist's unsuspecting heart on a merry chase.

O muse. wherefore art thou.