We all — but a few — fall under the category of
Creating art means you must allow yourself to be criticized as well as praised. Artists live in a world of vulnerability. To be an artist takes courage and persistence.
Being an artist means your imagination and motivation are tied together. Logic-driven beings, to a degree, are artists, yet it is their minds at play, stretching boundaries and crossing reality with fantasy, that make them tick.
From painters and composers to songwriters, dancers, poets, sculptors, writers, and even businessmen, creativity and imagination are their keys to achieving success.
Being a professional artist of any kind can be an extremely difficult career choice. Success is often a long and unforgiving journey. Each success is motivation, while each failure makes you wonder why the hell you’ve chosen such a path.
All artists I know simply want a dream where they can do what they love for a living. The need inside is so great that professional artists, of any kind, will do their artistry regardless of the pay.
People who are artists are not creative because they want to be. No, they are creative because they have to be.
As a dancer, I will dance and teach dance for free just because I love it. The truth be told, dancing fuels my existence, as does writing, drawing, and painting.
All of the arts I love make me want to get out of bed each morning, and at 70, you need every reason you can get. Unfortunately, I had to hang up my professional dancing shoes a few years back, yet a beautiful Waltz, Bolero, or Cha Cha still makes me feel at home.
The arts come in an array of sizes, shapes, and colors, so to speak. Comedy is an art that most people not only enjoy but also need.
For two years, I was part of an acrobatic comedy act in Las Vegas. I loved it! Never had so much fun being sore as hell all the time in my life.
In the bottom left photo, I am the gentleman holding the other gentleman above my head while having a casual conversation with my female partner, and brains of the act, Trudy Rose. In the upper right, I am standing behind David and Trudy Rose, firing up a smoke, Haha!
I have had a few jobs; however, for me, a job is what you do when you’re not doing your career. Since our lives are so short, not to do what you love for a living seems crazy.
However, when you have a family, as I did, it’s important to keep food on the table, a roof over your head, and all the other essentials in life. That’s why having a steady income is so important.
Unfortunately, a person will lay aside their dreams to afford a life they are miserable in. Many of us have done this, me included. I’ve waited tables, been a bartender, a salesman at Macy’s, a gas station attendant (when they had them), and a welder trying to make ends meet, and hated them as a career.
The phrase my father would use, “You do what you gotta do to pay the bills!” He was also the one who told me, “Do what you love for a living, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” That is also what he did.
Marvin was my father’s name, and his artistry was math. A self-taught mathematician, if you can believe that? He would sit at the kitchen table reading books about physics or some other math-related discipline.
Sometimes Dad would have a quart of beer and a cigarette in hand as he sat at the table, trying to solve extremely hard math equations just for kicks.
When he died, he was the senior nuclear cost engineer for Washington Public Power Supply Systems, at the Hanford III Project, which was a nuclear power plant being built in Richland, Washington.
He didn’t even graduate from high school. This is the essence of the arts: persistence steeped in learning and passion.
Out of every well-known artist in the world, there are thousands of unknown, incredible, and waiting to be discovered artists. This is why so many artists are awarded their due posthumously, and others are never to be known at all.
This is the way of the universe; we all know it. However, with the internet, more and more people can achieve recognition more easily than before. Again, the rub with social media is that there are so many more people in the mix trying to create their own thunder.
I know, as all artists know, success in any career choice is an uphill climb. I also know that we do it anyway because that’s right, we have to. Even knowing the difficulties, knowing the odds against us, the true artisan will never stop or be impeded by this reality.
For most of us, we not only accept it but also cherish the high bar we face. With each painting painted, each song written and sung, and each novel published, that measure of excellence is set by the standards we ourselves appreciate.
Unknown or not, stay motivated by learning new things. Get interested in the world around you and share your imagination with whoever you can.
Remember, you are making yourself vulnerable by showing off your art, so don’t allow others’ opinions to influence your love for what you do and what you think about your genius.
Peace, Love, and Unconditional Happiness!
Artistry by Mikel 
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