What's the longest you've gone without creating something? (painting, abstract, work)

[tcrackly]

I am over 50 years old and I've been painting and drawing all my life. i have a BFA in Art and have had limited success selling my work, but I always continued to create, mostly watercolors. I even worked a number of years drawing production and custom decorations for a small pottery factory.
Lately my DH and I have had such bad economic years, family tragedies and just such a string of bad luck that I have not painted in about a year. the last two winters I or both of us have been unemployed. I am now completing a course in entry-level health care to secure my working future but I feel kind of lost and empty without creating images. I literally can't afford the time to pick up a brush now that my time is divided between household, work and school.

What is the longest any of you out there have gone without creating? How did you feel? Is it valid to be that connected to an abstract function?

[jaxart]

I can relate, but not entirely since I am an older retiree who has both BFA and MFA in Studio Art. I have NOT been creating art all of my life. I began it as a hobby when I was working full time and raising a family (3 children). Later in life I found myself retired against my will - golden parachute victim - and decided to return to university as a full-time art student.

JAXART WEB SITE

But I've never even thought of supporting myself with my art and have never had expectations for my work selling well. So it's remained a hobby. In the past year or so I've had a hard time getting motivated to do anything - mostly in the 2-D field (painting & drawing). Every time I think about it I just can't seem to justify adding yet another object to the large inventory of "stuff" I have in storage.