It's perfectly OK to create "for yourself," but the truth of the matter is that our art is not complete until it encounters an audience. And creating for an audience will often give your work a focus and purpose.
However, MOMA is not your audience. The Pulitzer Committee is not your audience. The Academy voters are not your audience. Creating for them is giving yourself permission not to create.
Who is your audience then?
First, be your own audience: journal your efforts in some way. Practice ABANDONMENT to give yourself distance from your work; come back to it with a new eye. Do what pleases you.
Second, like The Inklings and other groups, create your own circle. (Musician Brian Eno calls this your "scenius," your "group genius.") That's what the Lichtenbergians are for me: a group of friends who are there to look over my shoulder. Find a group, start a group. Go online if you have to — although nothing beats sitting down in a coffee shop or around a fire with like-minded people.
You can read blog posts about AUDIENCE here.
