Giving freely of one’s art is what makes the work truly one’s own.

Evidence

Babette’s whole 10,000 francs have been spent on the feast, but she does not mind that, because she is an artist and she has indulged her art; she has remembered her own nature, and introduced others to their real appetites. The pastor himself said, “The only things we can take from this earthly life are the things we have given away.” — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 353

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Mantel’s ‘Ink is a generative fluid — words breed consequences’ — art as expenditure and generosity rather than accumulation.
• SEED: Angle: the artist who pours everything into one work — as craft lesson on indulgence versus restraint in a set piece.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 353