Just because it sounds scary, doesn’t mean it really is a bad thing.

I think I mentioned before that we own our cars outright. They aren’t very new; and they break down periodically, sometimes in spectacular ways. It ends up being cheaper to fix them. So we purchase parts, put them up on jacks and get to work. What that means is that we are constantly listening for sounds, paying attention to wiggles and vibrations and watching fluid levels like a new mother with a brand new baby. This week I was driving my Suburban to my studio, and I heard a squeak and screeching sound. Then came a rhythmic pulsing sound and I thought, “oh crap, it’s a bearing somewhere.” I pulled over, put it in park, popped the hood and jumped out to listen. A technician came out and offered her help so I put it in drive and pulled forward, nothing. I thanked her and pulled out on the street and headed to work with my fingers crossed. The stereo is original and I plug it into my iphone through an AUX cord. I hadn’t turned on my music yet but the phone was plugged in and I realized, it wasn’t plugged in all the way. The noise? It was the feedback coming through the AUX cord feedback. I turned of the stereo and the noise went away. I felt such a fool.

As an artist, we get solicited by online agencies all of the time. It is my wife’s/husband’s birthday and I want to purchase your work for their gift. Or, I am interested in purchasing your work for NFT’s. How about: I am travelling and purchased a new home and want to fill it with your art. All of them sound too good to be true and tend to be scams. I recently received one that I was wondering about. After some back and forth, I asked them for some artist contacts that I could speak with. They didn’t give me contact information but, they did give me a name that I could look up. I reached out to her and she verified them and answered my questions. What did I ask? Did they sell for her, how were they about paying, how they were to work for. She then asked me about finding galleries in the US so I gave her the best advice I could.

Ronald Regan once said, “Trust but verify.” Parents have been doing this with teenagers for years. As an artist, it seems to be a good way to go. We can’t say no to everything and we need to take chances every once in a while. We can; however, take chances based on research and information. It never hurts to reach out to strangers and ask questions. Artists all over the world are facing the same problems we are. Making sales, finding markets, trusting online inquiries, learning new mediums; just because they are on foreign soil doesn’t make their problems any different.

While our heads of state try to work things out and fight each other, let’s try to remember that as artists we are all having the same problems. Through all of the conflicts through out time, all over the world; art has been a common thing. I believe in the purity of creativity and what we can communicate through it. I communicate peace and serenity, that is my goal. I realized that was what I was saying after I had been painting for a few years. You might not understand what you are saying at first, you may never know. It really isn’t important that you figure out what your art is saying, just that your find your creative voice. Keep creating, it will tie our world together in a way that the governments can’t touch.