BALANCE

Balance, a principal that should probably apply to most, if not all of our endeavors to navigate a life.  I suppose the critical point, the one each individual has to determine for his or her self, is where to place the fulcrum.

As an artist I have faced this question repeatedly over the past 30 years.  Artists who are dependent on the income from their art must find the balance between creating for the market and creating for one’s self.  Even though the art I paint for myself is also popular in the market, I have had to deal with this issue from time to time.

It is only now, late in my career that this issue of balance has become more prevalent on a day-to-day basis.  Exposure to the work of other artists is often inspiring and educational, and has the potential to send my work off in another direction, one I would not have encountered on my own.  I never felt the need to tamper or lessen these encounters…until now.  At this stage in my life, I’m a few months away from my 75^th birthday, I feel a growing need to carefully choose my encounters with the world around me, while increasing the focus on my own work.  More than ever before I want my work to arise from a wellspring within me, hopefully refining a lifetime of labor.  I am not announcing my imminent demise, indeed, I hope to be around for a long time, but I am facing the reality of the tenuousness of my position, and thus the need for balance – to mine the work that is within me, while not allowing the work to become old, stale, and tired.  All that I have to do is figure out where to place the fulcrum.