How many steaks can an artist eat: Food, Food, Food, esculent eatables. The second most enjoyable, pleasurable, sensuous part of one’s life. You can decide what the first one should be. Food, “It’s what’s for dinner, breakfast and lunch.” Goes way beyond mere substance. The culinary maestros can orchestrate virtuosos; the perfect meal to suit just about everyone’s mood. Food is an inclination towards the senses; see, smell, touch and devour its tastiness. Virtually no one disagrees with the palatable, delectable, heavenly eats we all associate with the celebratory gratification derived from eating perfectly prepared food. It can be sinfully rapturous.
The starving artist may be more about his or her nutrition and dietary habits, then their ability to sell a work of art. There was a time when all you needed was the “Green Fairy” (Absinthe), it was more than enough to get the creative juices salivating for creativity. Too much of it, not mixed properly, and without the cubes of sugar, could make you want to cut a piece of your ear off; as Vincent Van Gogh unfortunately discovered. I wonder what he and Gauguin had for dinner that night? I suspect it wasn’t steak cooked medium rare on French briquettes.
A properly fed tummy, without stimulants, is truly the catalyzer in establishing meaningful creative output. When your sugar levels drop, you can become dizzy and faintishly languid. You enter the unproductive ‘tizzy zone’. In other words, you can’t think your way into a creative mental posture.
Since the first known artwork painted on cave walls, artists have been challenged with their need for chow, versus their need for paint. We know there have been artists who could no longer afford paints and canvas, so they often resorted to using boot black polish and newspapers to paint on. For those unfortunate creative souls, a piece of meat would’ve been completely out of the question. Bread and vegetables, perhaps some soup, would’ve been all the nourishment they would’ve needed to keep their brain cells firing towards their intended goal of creating art.
Today most artists eat pretty well, and not because they’re selling carloads of art. The income for purchasing food invariably comes from a job. Smart artists know and understand that their body is a temple that requires good nutrition supported by conscientious devotion into taking care of themselves. Good health is the number one prerequisite to living up to your full creative potential.
Is eating steak every night the answer? No: but in my way of thinking occasionally, nutritionally it’s good for the brain. Now I know; the vegans out there will argue, and for all practical purposes, they have a pretty good argument for abstaining from meat products. Scientists do in fact, tell us that our brains developed as a result of meat protein. Early man had a lot to contend with when it came to survival, he did not have the luxury of planting vegetables and picking fruit. He was nomadic and generally ate just about anything he could get his hands on, of course some of what he ate was plant-based, like tubers in the ground, or berries on a bush. But once he discovered fire, the future of Weber barbecue was solidified.
How many steaks can an artist eat? One a day, three a week, four a month, once a month. Maybe none. There seems to be quite a few artists that don’t eat meat at all. This may or may not be nutritionally sound for cognitive health, but albeit for me to lobby for one side or the other. If you are what you think; you definitely are what you eat. Creative people need to maintain brain power. This is not always easy.
Our brains thrive on positive stimulation whether it be physical or psychological. Smart brains, or the ones that are owned by smart people, seek knowledge. As the old saying goes, “knowledge is power”, at least in the civilized mind.
There are a bunch of ways to keep your brain active and healthy, and we pretty much all know what they are. Besides the obvious, food, especially well prepared food, enjoyed at a slow and relaxing pace, can stimulate our brains into an endorphin ecstasy. It may not be easy or wise to leave a well satisfying meal, and run into your workspace to create. While your mind is in a most relaxed and satisfied state, the best thing you can do is to sit down for an hour and just think.
Food for thought: thinking, now here is something that is especially good for creative people, and all too often we don’t spend enough time doing it. You would be surprised how much you can achieve by sitting down after a good meal and just start thinking. If you’re like me, you may doze off after a dozen or so minutes, but ultimately your refreshed mind will start manifesting brilliant creative thinking. It might be added here, that only a small amount of those thoughts will ever make it to a physical creation. But definitely some will, and you will be amazed, or maybe even astonished that you came up with such a brilliant concept.
I eat steak, not too often. I have a tendency to eat more fish, and vegetables galore. Seasonal fruit is essential, in fact I discovered that God through nature; has a way of delivering just the right plant-based foods all year long to keep us healthy and wise.
How many steaks can an artist eat: plenty! But is it wise? Judge for yourself: we all make choices during our lifetime, some we are very proud of, others not so much. But the nice thing about being human is, we can eat steaks assuming we can afford’em. Many, many steaks to dine on; is it wise or not? The choice is yours.