Round and Round

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Round and Round

My holding pattern has not gotten better in the last month. That round and round feeling is still here.

I did pick up my brushes and work full on a persnickety detailed painting. So I know I can still do it. Even though I was wearing my old prescription glasses which I only need for reading and close up seeing, and by the time you read this, I will have had my vision exam and on the way to get a new pair of glasses for seeing near clearly.

Green Screen

Besides that, I've been hearing a whole lot of complaining by federal employees, who were asked to list 5 things they had done recently. Seems like a small task.

I'm not a federal worker but, I thought I would take the challenge myself.

Now I am retired no longer working for bosses, I'm in my 70's, and at home I have taken on part of the household duties… so its probably somewhat different for me than those fed workers. Here I'm going to list for the month of February.
  • Paid the mortgage, utilities, car payment, insurance and bought food (Maybe that's 5?).
  • Cooked a months worth of meals, and washed the dishes afterward.
  • Filed my federal taxes early.
  • Received my tax refund 10 days later.
  • Paid my yearly HOA dues. Ouch!
  • Took my wife to get her MRI for an injured shoulder.
  • Did something nice for my wife on Valentines day.
  • Spent innumerable hours sorting, boxing up and packing household things (we are preparing to move).
  • Searching many, many hours, for possible places to move.
  • Had my quarterly Doctors Visit.
But now you say, that's easy, that's not work, that's just living (and its pretty ordinary stuff).

So for my little business…
  • Started to prepare more canvas and frames for future paintings.
  • Daily updated, revised and added to the AIDLF website.
  • Did research looking to update or replace the studio computer.
  • Worked on that persnickety detail painting.
  • Added a YouTube video page to the website.
  • Added another video to the AIDLF channel on YouTube.
  • Working on several more videos to add.
  • Wrote this blog.



… and yes! It is true, for an artist, I did almost no painting. This, has been part of my round and round feeling. This, is also a result of my research into art and the art world that I have been adding to the Forum of this website.

What? You didn't know there was a Forum here? You should check it out… Art Forum: Eye of the Beholder.

What did I mean, round and round… result of my research? It amazing how people can write on the same subject and come up with different conclusions, such as:
  • No such thing as the starving artist vs a well documented history of many famous artists dying poor.
  • Artists making money vs don't sell out, be true to your art, don't chase the money.
  • Keep creating more art every day vs there is too much art in the world for you to ever be discovered as an artist.
  • Artists have to be social, verbal and good at business vs I just want to make art in my studio.
  • The art world is open and non discriminatory vs the art world gatekeepers and in-crowd mentality.
  • Art world: private world of secrets vs … well there isn’t much to debate on there!
We could go on and on with opposing viewpoints outlined, but I won't now.

When I set out on this art adventure I had set my sight on being the best. I had confidence and energy… even a little attitude. I thought I was on my way, but along that way I began to find there were better artists than me. In fact, there were a lot of them. OK, I said to myself, "So then I'll just be really good amongst the other artists better than me."

Surely my artwork is unique… isn't it? Well at least I can still say it appeals to me.

At this point I have to say, Thank you, if you're one of those collectors who like what I do. You are important to my mental health and attitude.

Back to "along they way", where I met so many artist with remarkable skills and artwork. They have also shown themselves to be noteworthy people in their own right. As I encounter all this widening of my artist world view, I ponder again… where do I fit in in all this? Where do we all fit into this?

It is a question that has my head spinning at times.

So can there be too much art, good art, even great art? Then also, can there be too many artists, too many good, even great artists? Is it good for the art world? How about the artists? Is it good for them? In a world of unrecognized and wonderful artwork with very good, even excellent artists, where does that leave us all?

This is a good share of why my head is going round and round. Am I just feeling dizzy? Or am I circling the drain? Time will tell or maybe I carry on with this next time?


Dave

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