No Go

 

Well, didn't get to go to Mexico. :(  Maybe the artist's statement didn't do it. Maybe my artwork didn't do it. I am bummed out, but like all artists, we just persevere. Why are we like that? It's in our blood. We have no choice really. That's how we are made.
Artists are a different breed of human. I believe it's a compulsion to create, to just go on.

I found a quote that made me chuckle. It was from a book called "Taking the Leap – Building a Career as a Visual Artist" by Cay Lang. A great book by the way. I had it forever and finally while cleaning out a room, I decided to read it.

"There is nothing fiercer than a failed artist. The energy remains, but, having no outlet, it implodes in a great black fart of rage which smokes up all the inner windows of the soul."

~Erica Jong

This is about right, if I don't have some kind of creative outlet, be it graphic design, playing 'cello or fine art, even teaching art, I just about implode! I can't function, I get ornery. It's not a choice.

Vincent Van Gogh had the same problem (no, I'm not comparing myself to him, except the crazy) and was prescribed to paint by Dr. Gachet. Nowadays, It's a common prescription as art therapy. So, there is something to it!

We must go on, even if we don't get into the show, or the artist's retreat or whatever it might be. It's just part of the game.

I never shed a tear, we all have to have thick skins or we just will fail as artists and will implode. Being told something we create is not good enough, even though we sweat to make it. We fell in love with our baby and then someone else says, no, not good enough. It's our work! No, we have to be tough, building up that shell over the years.

I credit my first art professor Dick Dahle with helping build that up, the blister, the callous to not cry, even though he sure made a lot of girls cry and quit!