intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for the artist

It's been a little bit since graduation and I've been able to distance myself from what I was doing then and trying to find my own artistic direction.


With a big influence from Csikszentmihalyi, I have been trying to determine those elements of my art which are intrinsic and those that are extrinsic. I really don't think being one way or the other makes an artist successful or results in better art on it's own. Though, I believe that the approach aught to be integrated with the personality of the artist. 


On second thought, I think better art tends to come from artists who are intrinsically motivated. Monet comes to mind, in that I believe a lot of his production was motivated by the art market. He did after all, need to maintain the trappings of a bourgeois lifestyle. Though his best art in my opinion was intrinsically motivated. Like his series of late pond paintings and his light studies.


Perhaps this is because when extrinsically motivated, an artist tries to appeal to an audience who tend to not have the same taste level as the artist. Though, when intrinsically motivated, the artist must meet his / her own standards, which tend to be more refined than the general art buying public.