Hope

"Too often in the past we have thought of the artist as an idler and dilettante and of the lover of arts as somehow sissy or effete. We have done both an injustice. The life of the artist is, in relation to his work, stern and lonely. He has labored hard, often among deprivation, to perfect his skill. He has turned aside from quick success in order to strip his vision of everything secondary or cheapening. His working life is marked by intense application and intense discipline. As for the lover of arts, it is he who, by subjecting himself to the sometimes disturbing experience of art, sustains the artist — and seeks only the reward that his life will, in consequence, be the more fully lived." —JFK, 1962

I had a bout of insecurity yesterday. Fear of the unknown and all that stuff. Matt had stopped by and I told him I felt like a dope because the only thing that I feel like I can do, and that gives me some sort of peace, is working in the studio, making paintings, and that even though sometimes painting was a struggle it was a good struggle, but that I was feeling like it wasn't enough. He mentioned this JFK quote and sent it to me later.