All makers must leave room for the acts of the spirit. But they have to work hard and carefully, and wait patiently, to deserve them. — Ursula K. Le Guin

Hmmm sounds a little bit like “Do the Work” eh?

The intellect cannot do the work of the imagination; the emotions cannot do the work of the imagination; and neither of them can do anything much in fiction without the imagination.

Where the writer and the reader collaborate to make the work of fiction is perhaps, above all, in the imagination. In the joint creation of the fictive world. — Ursula K. Le Guin

Now obviously Ursula, being a writer, is talking about writing. I’m here to tell you that I think this is true no matter what the medium you’re working in. And although you don’t have to show anyone what you do for the creative process to be important and successful for you, there is a new depth to it when other people interact with it.

I love to lurk around and listen to what people say about my quilts for instance. They wonder about the construction and materials sometimes and sometimes they just sort of mumble with their friends and out come the most interesting bits which reveal what they are reacting to and how they feel about it or what their eye sees. That’s fun to do in museums too, to listen to the conversations about what you’re looking at. Sometimes they’re ridiculously pompous but often they’re matter-of-factly revealing and important.

Finally, this quote from Ursula, part of this piece from Brain Pickings:

But although most writing is done in solitude, I believe that it is done, like all the arts, for an audience. That is to say, with an audience. All the arts are performance arts, only some of them are sneakier about it than others. — Ursula K. Le Guin