What powers artists who reach old age? The work

My mother is an artist by education, but she didn't pursue a career in art, and opted for being an artisan and practicing art in her spare time. She's now retired and is only occasionally asked to do some part time work.

By her account now is the best time for actual creativity. There's no pressure to stand out and as a long time member of the artist association she can count on some space to show off her work should she wish so, but most of her paintings never see a larger audience because she now paints things that match her taste alone. It's kind of therapeutic really.

She also does sculpture because every painter eventually becomes a sculptor and every sculptor eventually becomes a painter.

People who went down the path of being a career artist are in a generally worse position now, because that's all they know and what they invested all their time in and unfortunately most of them didn't make much of a name for themselves.

That makes me think about David Bowie’s last album. I am pretty neutral on his previous creations. But his last album really resonates in me.

And I wonder how you do feel when you have reached such a level of expertise, and are given an unknown amount of limited time to achieve your last creation.

It's one thing to paint in front of canvas into 80s and 90s, but it's truly remarkable to built large spider sculptures like Louise Bourgeois did at the same ages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maman_(sculpture)

Not mentioned in the article: Michelangelo, who outlived pretty much all of his contemporaries and, "late in life, took on a series of huge, daunting projects, fully aware that he would never live to see them completed."

https://web.archive.org/web/20200629202130/https://www.nyboo...

So this is not in regards to art, but instead with regards to building software. In my 40s I feel like my brain is finally working. Things which seemed extremely difficult a few years, I can now build with clarity and simplicity. People and political issues which seemed so difficult are now child's play. Consequently, the type of opportunities I am getting are very different from before, and much more interesting.

What have I lost - outside of my most favorite areas, my taste for theoretical CS which previously drove is completely gone. I'm now looking for work that is it's own reward.

Or, just not dying