WELCOME

Loving work or not, it is a bit of a race with an endless finish line. As with any product, (which if you sell it-art is a product), making art that is sellable is important. In many cases, it drives your creativity. Yes, this is where some feel that business interrupts creative purity. I would somewhat agree, but not to the point of wanting to starve myself.

In part one of this three-part blog post, I spoke about my love of creativity, how it became part of me from a very young age and then how creativity and a business acumen became key to the success and happiness of my art career. Additionally, I strongly made the case for the need for all creative types who plan on using their creativity for their livelihood, to become not only more business savvy but that they outright need to do so for their survival.

I love creativity. I really mean that. It runs in my veins like an unbridled horse, wild and free. When I was very young a pencil or a crayon was just as much fun as toys tapping into a boy’s youthful imagination as any to be found. As I grew I used them and words to therapeutically help as best they could with my parents' divorce.

In 1968 my Aunt Dottie, quite uncharacteristically, took a thirteen-year-old me to see Stanley Kubrick’s nerve twisting science fiction film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, at the Uptown Theater on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C.

Creativity. The very nature of the word comes in making something from nothing more than an idea. Originality. It is the essence of something new. So listen, I have an idea.

I can remember as a young boy growing up in the 50s and 60s, my brother and I being schooled by my very artful mother with her lessons on decorating our Christmas tree. She was dutifully precise in her approach. Nothing about decorating was to be done willy-nilly, or at break-neck speed.

Where age brings us wisdom, the youthful brings us energy. As someone who is in his 60s, I think sometimes youthful energy epitomizes wisdom and how best to live an artful life! When you’re young, your responsibilities haven’t jaded your attitude toward keeping life fun. It’s a lesson we all need to not just practice; it’s one we should endear ourselves to. Enthusiasm comes from a place of joy, and it is empowering. Stress, what stress? Enthusiasm is a stress crusher!

Where did the year go? No, wait a minute, where did the decade go?

Time is each and every one of our’s most important resources. It is precious, and while we still find time to waste it, we certainly blow through plenty of it working.