Chasing the Tiger


June 12, 2025


There are moments in the creative process that feel like magic. You’re deep in it — your hand knows exactly what to do, your mind stops questioning every move, and the work just… flows. It’s as if you’ve tapped into something beyond yourself. Ideas are coming faster than you can hold onto them, your brush moves as an extension of your body, and for a little while, it feels like you can do no wrong.

This is the moment every artist lives for — when things begin to unfold on their own, when effort and outcome align, when creation becomes instinctual. It doesn’t come often, and it never stays long. But when it does, everything else fades away. You’re no longer just making something — you’re chasing the tiger.

And here’s the truth: when that moment hits, don’t stop. Don’t pause to admire it, don’t step back to take a break, don’t try to capture it for later. Keep going. Even if you’re tired. Even if you’re totally spent. Especially then.

Because chasing the tiger — that wild, elusive force behind true creative breakthroughs — is not something that waits for you. It’s not patient. It doesn't care how exhausted you are. The tiger is pure momentum, pure energy, and it asks for everything you've got, all at once. When it runs, you run with it.

Sure, your body will beg for a break. Your mind might start whispering that you should stop while you're ahead. But if you listen, you risk losing the thread. You risk coming back later only to find the fire’s gone cold, and no amount of retracing your steps can bring it back.

What lives on the other side of exhaustion — past the resistance and hesitation — is something rare. It’s the raw, unfiltered essence of your work, stripped of self-doubt and hesitation. Sometimes, it’s not even about quality anymore. It’s about truth. About getting to a place where the art finally speaks louder than your inner critic.

So when you feel it happening — when the lines are hitting just right, when the ideas are flowing, when the paints are telling you what they want — don’t break the spell. Push through. Keep chasing. Burn now, rest later. That moment might be the one that changes everything.

The tiger doesn’t come around often. But when it does, it’s up to you to follow. Not forever — just far enough to see where it leads.

And if you’re lucky, maybe, just maybe… you’ll catch it.

The Christopher Mudgett archive collection is the only one in the world to present the artist’s up-to-date painted, sculpted, engraved and illustrated œuvre and a precise record—through sketches, studies, drafts, notebooks, photos, books, films and documents—of the creative process.
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