What happens when the well runs dry?

What happens when the well runs dry.

There is this house that is filled with the most amazing art I have ever seen.  It is all done by one woman.  She had a gallery in a large city that she sold her pieces out of and one day….. she couldn’t go on anymore and she closed it.  She was done.  She stopped making art.  I had a very quick conversation with her, it didn’t go very far.  “Your T.” She said.  I looked at her and replied, “You are an artistic powerhouse.” She walked away.

               I didn’t realize that part of her had died. 

What are we when the well runs dry?  Are we still an artist?  Are we still creative?  How do we live if we can no longer strive to create?

We put one foot in front of the other and move on.  Parents do that when their kids grow up.  You hear the platitudes, “your children will always need you.” But will they?  Not if you raised them right.  Oh, they might need advice, but healthy kids; balanced kids grow into adults.  Are we still parents when they can stand on their own?

Our art is like our children.  It and they live on beyond us, mostly anyway.  Our children and our art is supposed to.  No one knows who built The Sphinx, but it still exists.  There are records of who designed Notre Dame but how many of the general populace at large actually know who that was?

In the end, we re-invent ourselves many times in our lifetime.  Each invention touches people around us and that is what lives on.  If it is our progeny, our art, our conversations; so be it.  The jewelry you create will be worn by generations.  Paintings will hang, sculptures will endure and that part of us will continue to exist.  It doesn’t matter that my name might not be known in 20 years or 50, the significance comes in the joy it continues to bring.

I’d like to think that people by my art not because of who I am, but because they loved that which I created.  It should stand alone and be enjoyed without any explanation.  Like the Sphinx, and my son; who is pretty spectacular.  If I could have that woman in front of me for a moment, I wish I could tell her that everything she created is still significant and glows with inner life.  It matters and will continue to exist as proof in the universe that she was an artist.