I do think that a lot off artists seem to be in touch with mystical forces, and that they draw on some kind of vision and divine inspiration.  However, I think there is a romantic idea about the artist who dashes things off in a great blaze of enlightenment.  In fact, there probably was such a blaze, at some point in the process, if the artist was inspired, but the realization often takes a tremendous amount of skill, and practice, and hard work.

-- J. Carter Brown
(in Inspired Lives:  Exploring the Role of Faith and Spirituality in the Lives of Extraordinary People, edited by Joanna Laufer & Kenneth S. Lewis)