"Take care of your art and it will always take care of you..."Writer Nicholasa Mohr told me these words years ago, when I was just beginning to make art after many years of wandering in the editorial wastelands. Her words rang true and I held on to them. This morning I remembered them again.
I spent the whole day yesterday preparing a Power Point presentation about my "trajectory" as an artist. I place this word in quotations because it sounds so grand, I cannot quite own it yet. There's much to be done, and I feel I'm just starting, but as I was trying to build a map of my route, I realized that at least I have something to say and to show. I can even stand in front of the students I will be facing this coming week in La Crosse University in Wisconsin and actually have something to share with them. And this is possible because I have followed Nicholasa's advise as much as possible.
Yes, my art has been taking care of me. It takes care of me by allowing me to have enough money to live, and be happy while I earn it. I takes care of me by giving me a way to approach life, something to offer the world, a path that leads to discovery, passion, and often bliss. But it was not until I started taking care of my art that this began to happen.
I take care of my art by making it to the best of my ability, and trying to improve and see my own shortcomings every time I begin a new piece. I try to accept every opportunity to bring it out of my studio and into the world. I invest time and money in it. I nourish it through readings, trips, walks, conversations, writing. I have recognized it as my spiritual portal and also as the way itself.
Take care of your art and it will always take care of you. This has been the best piece of advice I ever got. Substitute the word "art" with talent, passion or vocation, and I'm pretty sure it will still work: because to take care of something is to have faith in it's growth. And faith the greatest magic in the universe.
