Often things are said (well-meaning, of course) that imply an artist should find satisfaction simply in the creative process. Painting pictures never seen. Composing songs unheard, unplayed, unsung. Writing poems never read and recited.

Nurturing a child in the womb and giving birth is only the beginning of motherhood and...
“The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin