You really make art primarily for yourself. I’d say, even when you are a very well-known artist with lots of shows and exposure in the media. That show only lasts a few weeks, maybe a few months. The opening of that show, when the artist really takes center stage and feels admired, maybe even adored, lasts just one evening. For that, the artist has slaved months, sometimes years. And you can’t have shows all the time.

It is the same in other branches. The chef in the top restaurant whose creations are served to people who, even after intensely savoring their first bites, are mostly interested in their conversation. The flower arranger whose amazing bouquets get at best a few seconds of admiration, but mostly just a passing glance. The band that plays at a party where people listen mostly to themselves. Maybe the high performing arts are different? There one is in the limelight every day and night. But that comes with other disadvantages. Like the same lines every evening, there we go again:  “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks ...” And so, after a few weeks of night after night even the most ephemerally beautiful becomes commonplace through its relentless repetition, MUST become commonplace in order for mortals to survive it. And there too, the same: the audience has only a fleeting moment of enjoyment, applauds, yawns, talks about the weather and goes home.

All the rest of the time, it’s just you and your art, and a whole lot of very hard work. So you’d better enjoy what you’re doing. As for moments of recognition, I've had a few, although they are of the social, spiritual kind, not the dollar kind. But it's good enough, although I hope it will get better, and I'm fortunate I don't have to live off my art. The best recognition I received: the picture here is one of my very first oil paintings and Caiti, my daughter, insisted on taking it to college ...