Can art making become effortless?

Looking at Art:

When you look at work by your favorite artist, do you ask yourself if making that piece was easy for them? It may be tempting to assume that when the artist has mastered their medium everything will flow. Anyone who has seriously created art knows that there are many decisions to be made along the way, involving medium, scale, composition, colors, etc. So, do all these decisions prevent the art from being effortless?

Work in the Studio:

My art begins with an idea. Sometimes there is something that inspires me and sometimes the idea arrives from a series in progress or simply surprises me when I am thinking about a related subject. Many stages in the process of creating require stopping, assessing and decision making, but there are times when these deliberate steps are replaced by intuitive work and when that work is going well, the progress does seem effortless. Of course, this does not happen all of the time, and perhaps that is why art making is called “work”.

Arabesque, Ceramic Sculpture, 11” x8” x7’

I wanted this piece to appear to swirl around. Building from the bottom up with slabs, thin flat pieces of clay, I stretch each piece into shape as I add it. When the sculpture is growing in this way, the flow of assembling and shaping it seems to take on a life of its own.