What motivates artists?

Surely we are not in this business for the money, so what is it that drives artists to make art? You can write about what motivates you as well as what you have observed in others. Are there character traits, experiences, and desires that make us artists and other people not?

Discouraged?

Discouraged about your creative work not living up to your expectations? This from Ira Glass, writer and host of public radio's "This American Life," http://omeleto.com/188186/ (Try to ignore the obnoxious, swirly typography.)

Your contemporary issues...

What are some of the social and/or political issues that concern you the most? If you know of artists addressing these issues in their work, please list them.

Here are some of mine to kick things off:
1. consumerism - see the link to "The Story of Stuff."
2. violence against women
3. climate change
4. religious fundamentalism
5. the corporatizing of higher education
6. the distribution (or lack of) of wealth

I could keep going...