It is strange if not funny if not sad how different happenings in your life can lead, control, (force) your feelings OR lack of them to control things that you do or for that matter don't do.
I love to paint and when possible I paint everyday. It has always given me great joy and a huge sense of personal accomplishment.
I've been painting for almost 16 years now, which is a long time - I started when I took early retirement at 55. During these years I've threatened to QUIT painting to the best of my knowledge about 50 - 75 times- NOT COUNTING 100 TIMES DURING MY FIRST YEAR :>). There was one time I stopped painting for 4 months, about 4 years ago, with the full intention of quitting. As a lark I switched from watercolor over to acrylics. This switch has given me 4 years of additional enjoyment and personal accomplishment.
At this point I paint merely for the enjoyment of it and for personal growth and accomplishment. I no longer seek exhibits or contests or avenues through which to sell my work. I just recently cancelled a month long solo exhibit. This was a rather prestigious exhibit that I waited 2 years to get juried into for a solo exhibit. It would have consisted of approximately 30 pieces of my work.
In anticipation of selling the house and buying an RV I inventoried my works and packed them up into boxes to go to storage when we start our RV journey. Truth be told unpacking them for the exhibit would be a PITA but it could be done with some effort and patience. The disturbing other side of that is --- They would have to be packed back up again!!!! The exhibit was scheduled to start in October.
I sat down and asked myself WHY???? With the economy and the lack of consumer fortitude and pride of resilience the chances of selling any of my pieces would be close to zero if not zero - (truth be told I thought for sure our home would be sold well before October!!) So I said to myself - "Self why bother!" So I cancelled the exhibit.
In this economy art work is about the last thing consumers will buy. Hell - people don't even get their teeth cleaned every 6 months anymore!
My wife and I ran our own very successful gallery in East Boothbay, Maine for 7 years, selling my art work (watercolors at that time) and her beautiful photography. I've had some good success with the acceptance and sales of my work - however that said - at this point it has become more of a hobby with a gradual but steady decrease of (self) gratification. The gratification just is not matching the effort.
My heart and hands tell me to keep painting - my mind says it may be time to slow down and see how a slow down affects me.
I fight this realization every day and although I really don't think I can stop painting I also realize that I should slow down a bit and produce less. Over time a happy medium will need to be found.
Nothing planned at the moment regarding a slow down but the thought does come to the very front of my mind more often these days.
As I say regarding the sale of our house - TIME WILL TELL.
