First Of More: ART

IMAGE AND TEXT ARE BOTH COPYRIGHT PROTECTED


"BLUE TAKES A STROLL"--18"x24" Original, SOLD (Private Collection, Austin, Texas)

Art is hard. You can run away and join a circus easier than you can become an artist. At least with the circus you get to go somewhere, see other places and meet other people. With art you are pretty much stuck in one room. Unless you are a Plein Air artist, then you get out of the house.

And with the circus you get a paycheck. Okay, maybe not much of one to be sure, but something!!! Which is ninety-nine point nine % more than the average artist will see in their lifetime. Did you know that Van Gogh never sold one painting? Or was that Cézanne? No, it was Van Gogh, hence the whacking off of one ear. Or was that Lautrec? And let’s not even mention that back then an artist was pretty well forced to find a “sponsor” who would support himself and his work. Okay, we’ll at least “mention” it. Michelangelo, for instance, can you imagine having to find a wealthy family to pay your bills today so you could paint? . . . let alone footing the bill to haul several tons of marble cross country and into a studio just so you could build a high scaffold and carve out The David?