If isolation tempers the strong, it is the stumbling-block of the uncertain.
–Paul Cezanne
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I spend a lot of time alone in the isolation of my studio. Fortunately for me, it is the place in the world where I am most comfortable and feel completely myself.
It is the place where I can feel unrestrained to free the mind and go wherever it takes me. The place where I can shed the uncertainty I find in the outer world and feel free to daydream. The place where I can summon up pictures that exist only inside myself. A place to study. To listen. To see.
It is my my university, my library, my theatre, my monastery and my place of refuge.
My haven.
When I am out of the studio, I am all the while trying to get back to it.
When others come into my studio, the dynamic of that place changes and I feel myself suddenly self-conscious and a bit uncomfortable, like I am standing in someone else’s home.
The visitors’ eyes become my eyes and I notice things I never see on a day to day basis. The cat hair on the floor that needs to be swept up. The paint splatters on the wall or a fingerprint in paint on the wall switchplate. The windows that need cleaning. The piles of papers that I have been meaning to go through for too many months. The paintbrushes soaking in murky water scattered throughout the place or the start of a not-too-good painting that will most likely never see the outer world.
In that moment, my perfect castle of isolation becomes a hovel of uncertainty.
But the castle remarkably reappears once I am alone again. The uncertainty recedes and I begin to feel myself once more.
My isolation is my default state of being.
I understand exactly what Cezanne is saying at the top. I have been more comfortable alone than in the company of others since I was a child. I don’t know if that is a strength or just a neurotic peccadillo. But I know that if I ever find uncertainty in my isolation, I will have lost my footing in this world.
But, thankfully, that hasn’t happened yet…
Redtree Times 
Interesting that I think of isolation as negative, and solitude as positive. There’s cross-over, of course, but it’s been fun to ponder the similarities and differences this morning.
I believe everybody has their own idea of what that line is between what is alone and what is lonely. I have known a number of artists who have struggled with the isolation that is sometimes comes with working as an artist. For them, it is a lonely place. Others, like myself, revel in that alone time. I often tell young wannabe artists to consider this isolation and whether they are suited for it before going all in.
On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 11:32 AM, Redtree Times wrote:
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To me, isolation is something imposed from outside (you are shunned, barred, kept away from others for whatever reason). But solitude is self-imposed and enjoyed by all of us introverted artists :). How could we create and explore our creations if we were all social butterflies?
I know I’m several years late, but I just wanted to say I was really touched when reading this. It’s something I can totally relate to, though more for my bedroom than a studio since I don’t have a studio.
Bedroom, studio, attic or whatever– we all want a place where we feel safe and at ease. Thanks for joining in! Much appreciated.