An artist's greatest virtue

I have a PhD submission deadline in 2 weeks, and a paper to review and submit within those two weeks. I have no time for my jive dancing or kung fu lessons, haven't hit the gym in ages or done my routine yoga in weeks. Food consumption has become optional and coffee is literally running through my veins instead of blood now. Health is going, mind has already gone... If there is one thing that is keeping me sane, it is my art...

Art is such a tangible concept... It is in everything, music, picture, books, theatre, food, buildings, games... Anything that the heart and mind can unwind and recuperate with. An artist's mind is like a cup full of creative juices with which they can create wonders. An artist's work is truly never done... He/she merely just stops working on their project... But it is rewarding nonetheless... As an artist, for me the ability to create something beautiful with my own two hands is the most rewarding feeling... An achievement without contest... Some are born artist, some learn to become one...

But what is the greatest virtues of an artist??

Some may say it is their eye for details, others may say their vast and unbridled imagination... It may be in their skills, it may be in their experience... It may be in their ability to imitate hyper-realistically an inanimate still life, it may be in their skill to recreate an entirely imagined universe, it could be in their skill of mixing and blending colours, it may be in their raw talent with pencils...

For me, the greatest virtue of an artist is his/her patience... 

One can not easily achieve greatness with just a single brush stroke. It requires practice, inspiration, determination and, above all, the patience to keep learning until a single stroke can achieve greatness for them. One simply doesn't just become an artist, he/she must earn the title, by their own virtue... The virtue of patience... 

A painting is never fully complete, the more patience and work spent on it, the more fruit it bears... It is merely the artist's choice when to stop working on it... There may come a point when too much can only ruin the painting, but does it really end there? The world is a vast canvas... Just like a forest doesn't have an end point or decorum as to when the trees should stop growing or the wind must stop blowing... It may seem chaotic but that is the whole beauty of the forest, the non existence of any order... So is art, vast and limited only by one's imagination. There is always room for improvement, changes, development, an extra stroke... And with patience, not just to create but also to perceive, it can reach a point of greatness, when the artist can finally stop. It matters not then whether the art is complete or not... It is complete as long as the message is clear...