Without willpower, making art alone is a very sad endeavor. If you wait for the muse then you will wait eternal. If you wait for a friend's approval you will forever chase clouds. If you have to make art alone then you will feel like a perpetual failure. If you have to make art alone then you will have no measuring stick or point of reference unless you dig one up yourself, and that point you will fall into the comparison trap and feel unworthy.
It is natural to want to contribute or feel some appreciation for something you have done. But if you are making art purely alone then you will have to give that appreciation to yourself. This is a sad end. There has to be a greater purpose or target if you have to make art alone.
Some artists will claim they do it for "their fans."
This is a worthy target, and very tangible. In the internet age the distance between an artist and their fans is quite malleable and playful; able to be absolutely minimized and then struck behind a fortress in minutes. However this is really just a substitute for human approval: fleeting, temporary, and fallible.
Some artists will claim they do it as a part of a community.
Perhaps they are doing it to feel the joy of doing it in partnership with others. So where is the end? Just perpetual satiation? Emptying the vat? Echo-chamber cacophony? For "good vibes"?
Only by participating in art with a vision for the future of man can one manage to do art alone these days. It manifests a higher seat of approval and an invisible judgment. If you can psych yourself into thinking you are doing something valuable, then it is much easier to ignore failure and carry on. At the very least, if it is an imagined calling, it becomes real as you do it. So is it then still imagined? It is so lonely though. I am so very alone.
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