It is a stereotype that the artist works alone. While we do spend a lot of time alone in a studio with only the beat of the ceiling fan to keep us company, we also need other people. Consider the classic loners from Van Gogh to Robin Williams, they wouldn’t have made it into the big time where everyone else knew of their work without patrons, allies and friends who helped them.
I am the benefactor of having friends, and I mean good ones, who have helped me at every stage of my artistic development. They didn’t get into my sphere just to help my art, they’re actually real friend-friends. We actually don’t talk about art when we get together, and that includes my wife who has talked art with me maybe ten times in twenty-seven years of marriage. But I need their humanity. I need their warmth. They rely on me to be there for me.
Keep the whole world but give me one friend. Ah, but I have hundreds of friends, so you keep hundreds of worlds!