CHANGE...the one constant in our lives

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Fifty-five years ago I decided I wanted to be a physician, and spent the next 16 years pursuing that goal.

Thirty-five years ago everything changed, and after five years of turmoil I knew I wanted to be an artist as much as I did a physician.  Without reservation I followed the path I cleared for myself with un-wavering commitment and enthusiasm.

So, at age 70, I was caught off guard when once more things began to change, and clouds of doubt and uncertainty rolled in to obscure a path that was once so clearly defined.  It was the beginning of a transition that, four years later, is still in progress as I enter into my most senior years.  The question is not what do the years ahead hold for me, but what do I want from the remaining years?  

In the almost five months since writing the above note I have developed a much clearer sense of what I want for myself, and what I would like to accomplish.  This recent excerpt from my journal describes still another change, this one related more to my attitude to my work and my age than anything else.

“2013 is the year that dispelled all the self-imposed age related restraints I had been laboring under in recent years.  The key word here is “self-imposed”, because by body has its own set of restraints that cannot be denied.  But they have no place in this narrative.

I had foolishly convinced myself that my best work was behind me, and that there was no longer a place in my life for grand, sweeping aspirations and goals, and that my work would now be slow, deliberate, and a lot less ambitious.  (Picture a tired old fart sitting in his studio ever so slowly working at an easel.)  I was that close to putting myself out to pasture.

Then came the Paducah Portfolio, After working for months on large canvases in 2012 for a gallery show in which nothing sold, I reacted by focusing all my efforts on smaller drawings and paintings, and the Paducah Portfolio was conceived.  With few exceptions, I devoted the entire year to the project, and in the process wiped out all of my nonsensical notions about age and work.  It is impossible to overstate how significant this has been for me.

I am facing 2014 with a head filled with ideas of things I want to do, which I am approaching with the attitude that I will liver forever.”

Me getting old?  Piss on that idea.