It’s a Spartan life. Simple days amidst the complexities of Art. You will learn to observe everything because you’re always in search of material and the next inspiration.
You will see pretenders drive past you in limousines on their way home to mansions, but don’t be envious of the poor in spirit. Their hardships will come in other areas. No one gets out of this life without scars of some kind.
When the money comes you will be generous to a fault, but when it doesn’t you will live like a monk. That will give you the gift of solitude and reflection that will enlighten your work. Sometimes you will feel like a machine. A pulsating, deeply caring but hurt, piece of machinery put on this earth to soak up all the follies and foibles of a world gone mad and to print out the pages of your observations and feelings about it.
Do not work for those who do not either understand or appreciate the process. If you do it will leave you confused and broken hearted. It brings rust to the machine. And you are too poor and too old for repairs.
Drink and laugh with real friends because that is what renews you. It is far better to laugh at the world than to cry over it.You may not be fully appreciated during your own life. That is a cruel reality that takes some accepting. But die with the knowledge that if you have done your job well and, if some kind advocates preserve it, it will live on. And thus so will you.
Die with your boots on. Keep working no matter what. It’s what you were put here to do. It is your gift and your curse.
Always feed the child within you. It’s nice to have experienced many things and to intellectualize about them, but it is the child within you that will always cut to the truth of any situation. Sometimes speaking out of turn.
Love the few, but appreciate the many.
There are those who will resent your gift and work against you. Pity them for they are starving. But do not feed them.
Life is a circus and you have been bred to perform in the ring. It will take guts to swallow the fear and to lose/find yourself within that spotlight. The weight of that glow will break some. Many in fact. Those who stand their ground will grow roots.
All the most beautiful things in the world have developed the strength to survive. Some are protected by thorns.
(c) 2014 Frank Howson
