Perseverance and Endurance, Words that describe a committed artist

Perseverance and Endurance, words that shape an artist.

What is 2 years in a lifetime?  Depends on how long the life has been.  To an infant, it is the difference between life and death. To a teen in love, it is endless.  It can be a serious threat to a great love or life goals. To a young man or woman, it is life shaping or changing.  At middle age, it is ripples in a pond and to an elder, merely a chapter in the cycle of existence.

We have been through more in the last 12 months than many will ever see again in a lifetime and yet there are a select few, who have already lived through this once already and are surviving it again.  What do those survivors tell us? Some how, you get through.  I take lessons from nature around me, the deer don’t count the days they slog through the snow.  Bears come out and seek food without a question of why there is still ice.  They work on surviving and making it to the days of sun and tender grass.

As artists, we need to remember that we just need to keep working through.  For the second year in a row, one of my bucket list shows had to cancel.  Am I deeply disappointed? Hell yes.  Was I surprised, absolutely not.  We are all listening to the news about the economy and where it is going to be in this year and the next.  We look to our new leaders and wonder will they print more money (should they) or tax us into the ground to cover what printed money we were already given to spend.  The discussions are daunting and help us bury the feeling of powerlessness. What do we do when others are in control of our lives and futures are feeling small and powerless themselves?   I paint.  I make goals. I keep walking through the morass of frustrations and I endure.  Can I go back to doing nails again? Yes.  I could wait tables, if there were restaurants open.  I’ve worked retail and Home Depot is still hiring.  That doesn’t help me grow as an artist.

I know there are artists that are working hourly jobs right now to get by.  In the small hours, they get up and they create because they don’t want to stop.  They are counting their pennies and watching the calendar to see what shows they could apply to and are sending in their jury fees in the hope, the chance…. That show won’t cancel.  We vaccinate, mask up, wipe down with sanitizers and keep looking out our display pieces because we must have hope that this next month,…. There will be that show.  They are enduring along side me.  We can’t see each other, but we are all doing the same thing.  We will persevere.  I know we will because we reach out to each other and help each other up.  We have each other to talk to.  We give each other strength, because we know; we are not alone.  We might have a mother in law that questions our choices each time we meet, there might be a cousin who tells us we are a drain on resources but; there is always that parent or grandparent, sibling or cousin who also tells us we are doing great by the way we keep trying.

I will paint one more painting this week, I will apply to another show, I am going to reach out to another artist.  Those are my goals.