I have watched many of my contemporaries go down the path of "deferred Late Afternoon at Maroon Lake
oil painting on canvas
24 x 36 inches adulthood" and wondered why they do it. The way I see it, experiencing life is all about jumping in there and seeing what I can make of myself, and that includes having the discipline to pursue my dreams and passions. As a representational landscape painter, I find myself in a unique position. At 29, I'm far younger than any of the artists that my galleries carry, so I hope that puts me in a good position to have a long career. As you said - I think that "the game is totally worth playing." I wouldn't want to wait until I'm old to discover that I spent half of my life avoiding responsibility and missing out on the big things in life. Doing it now puts me in a position to learn and grow as I go, and nothin' is better than that!

I read with a chuckle your comments re the FCA jury process. I was one Elizabeth
pastel painting of those 'traditionalists' your jury designated SFCA status. I was thrilled to get that, but plead 'guilty' to your astute observations. Like so many others, I didn't have access to the thorough classical training that gives a truly creative artist the freedom to create something beyond technically competent. I have to do that now. The more I paint, the looser and more adventuresome I get. I spent 35 years as a medical illustrator which at least had me drawing constantly, studying the human body. But only now have I started to learn how to paint. And I've got to do it the old fashioned way with miles of canvas and paper. I think maybe what you and your fellow jurors are seeing is the result of poor focus on technical skills in the art teaching business. The quick buck easily distracts youth. I was. This is beginning to change. The Atelier's are helping, but as they so well know, they can't do it in the standard 2 to 4 year format. Most of what we see in these juried association shows are folks who want to improve their skills so they can really step 'outside-the-box'. That's my goal!

In my home town of Tallahassee Florida, the LeMoyne Center for the Visual Hanging Out
Gouache on paper
14 x 22 inches Arts has an annual exhibition of high school students' art. The originality and freshness found in some of the work is reassuring. There is still creativity in the young. Some of these young people do go on to careers in art. The truth is, however, very few will go on. The creative life is not for sissies, it is not easy. In addition to having technical skill, talent and originality, one must have nerves of steel to continue working when your friends and family say, "When are you going to get a real job?" To create your own vision and nurture your growth as an artist while the world around you expects conformity is a difficult journey. Many take the easier route and give in to the expectations. As for those young, smart people still in the creative race, I say keep pushing on and don't give up. It's worth the effort.

As for "deferred adulthood" being the laziness of young people not leaving Coyote Coat
watercolour painting
12 x 16 inches home, especially in Europe, that is a traditional way of life in Italy. There, men of 30 up to 40 do not leave their mother's home. Maybe the virus has spread from there and is appealing to youth who have been given no sense of responsibility. I do not believe that by teaching students to look for the inner child, you have contributed a bit to art that is created without responsible "old fashioned technical superiority." Looking for the child within is to see the world as you did as a child. Fresh and with wonder. If the adult student cannot put that vision into a work of art that is enhanced even further by proficiency, then we really are in a sad state.

I have never shaken off my Crayola fixation, and my pencil and I were later Bluenose II, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
acrylic painting on canvas
8 x 10 inches the bane of elementary school text books. I had formal English-style art classes from grade one. Art, History and English were the only subjects which had the power to retrieve me from the imaginary world of the doodle. Things have not changed much since then. I have now and then veered away from representational painting but have always tended to keep my crayons within the lines. I therefore always come back to subject matter. Beyond that, I paint as I once coloured, alone, with full involvement, representing colour just as I see it in spite of the protests of those who live in a watered-down world. I really like red and am happy when I have an excuse to use it. Now We are Seven(ty+) and still have a lot of fun playing at being an artist. This precludes joining formal associations of painters, jurying and workshops. They used to pay me to do/be judgmental, but it made me feel uncomfortable remembering my earliest days on the wrong end of the weeding-out process. The remuneration paid to teach or judge could not be high enough to attract me these days!

It's much the same in the worlds of fiction and poetry. Ambitions have been pared About the Size of it
by Tom Disch down among the younger aspirants to a minimalist minimum. Formal competence in verse is as likely to meet with scorn as competent landscape painting or good portraiture. In fiction first-person, present tense pabulum abounds, and high school grads are encouraged to write their memoirs ("write what you know") which does give the edge (as you note of painting) to those who do dare venture out to sea.

The philosophy of getting in touch with your inner child is good for sometimes, Mother and Child
watercolour painting but not all times. Sometimes it's best to get in touch with your inner adult. You don't have to choose one or the other and cling to it all your life. It's really a matter of being flexible, and doing what is appropriate to the situation.

The computer is skimming off a lot of the young art talent. They can 'make a Netherland Inn III
pastel painting
8 x 10 inches living' with computers a lot more readily than with the gallery artist regimen. Let's face it, the gallery artist game is a glacially paced career for most of us. It takes time to put all the pieces together where your technical skills are where they need to be and you understand the business, marketing and professional side of this career. Many that are successful are in their fifties and beyond. This is an anathema to the attention deficit youth of today. They aren't going to invest the years of time on a crap shoot in the gallery artist business. You can't gain artistic skills with some sort of download or DVD. The bigger problem is discipline, perseverance and other old fogy values that fly in the face of the television culture of America where everything is immediate or needs to be. As George Bernard Shaw aptly put it 'youth is wasted on the young." You need time to develop the wisdom and maturity and if the shoddy and slapdash wasn't up to snuff, that's too bad. Let the old timers fill the galleries.

Back in 1974, I moved from Ohio to Northwest Florida. I felt I had stepped back Panama Shore
acrylic painting on watercolour paper
28 x 36 inches 20 years in time. The predominate paintings and style in the art community was very conservative and traditional. I consider myself to be an abstract impressionist. I liked non-objective abstractions better than subject matter. In my new community, I entered one of the better outside art shows. On my exhibit were several paintings, all non-objective abstracts. A gentleman was guiding a young couple around the show and was doing an excellent job describing in detail the media, style, and process involved in the work being displayed. They arrived at my exhibit and looked it over for a couple of minutes looking back and forth before saying anything. Finally he said, "Now these are finger paintings." I laughed to myself and thought I should be so lucky to paint like a child. I started exhibiting more and found that my work began changing to more acceptable work for sale in conservative communities and winning many awards. I still consider myself an abstract impressionist but my paintings have evolved into a more conservative style. I still love color, shapes and line, and in many of my paintings, I hope I still paint like a child.

What is different today is the totally hedonistic climate into which our unfortunate young people are born. Not only does everything have to be "fun," but fun, enjoyment and pleasure are the primary goals, governments and educators have got it wrong. Britain, especially, is now paying the price for a misguided educational philosophy which a few decades ago decided that "learning" comes as a by-product of having fun, forgetting entirely that a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction and self mastery are naturally concomitants of learning - GREAT FUN! Fun begets fun begets fun and a life pattern is established. When the "fun" is artificially provided and not the result of individual exploration, individually the self motivated drop out; those youngsters who need more direction are not learning and get bored with "fun." Every aspect of life comes to require a major "fun" component - even brushing one's teeth. What chance does a routine workday have?

Robert, I think your concern that there is a movement of "younger, smarter people simple pleasures
original painting who seem to have dropped out of the creative race" is unfounded. As a painter and father of three I spent many hours with my children having drawing contests and encouraging them to take risks creatively as they matured. My two oldest sons, 23 and 21 now work for Disney and Nerdcorps as a game designer and a 3D animator. Certainly, the world is changing, and art expression will reflect its time and environment. I am amazed to see the individual "voice" or "signature" that my sons' digital work communicates. I really don't think there's much chance of all creative young people abandoning the unique world of painting but there is an explosion of emerging art forms to explore so, of course, many will explore the new terrain.

I am glad to hear that old fashioned technical superiority was so honored in the jurying. I am a "new" artist; my mediums are paint and metal. My inspiration comes from the old masters; perhaps my life experience (without art) comes to my work now. In some ways I am glad I am an old new artist today because I wouldn't have wanted to be influenced by "modern" art so much. So let's say, born an artist, always an artist. Perhaps we should focus on the value and importance of enduring art, that we may someday inspire the postponing adults to create and start their creative opening at any age. After all when we are given the sight to be creative is it not also our responsibility to go to the ends of earth to awaken what may seem the most dead.

Just as we get the government we deserve, is it possible we get the art we deserve? Gracious Rapture
original painting Yeah Robert, you want the new visions but you want them well executed, within the confines of your definition of quality and craftsmanship! How can a new vision be mature? That is the problem all of us face, who don't just talk about change? but actually change things: If what I do does not neatly fit into a long ago perceived and structured framework, the work gets discounted or rejected. So who loses? Lucky for me, my work in another profession is sought after so that I can afford to produce and not sell my work. I'm not out there to change the world? I just keep changing myself.

My own "kids" have moved back to the homestead at the ages of 28 and 30. My
original artwork daughter from the fallout of divorce and my son from the "this is not a recession economy." While I may have planned for my golden years to be in a house without offspring, it is what it is. To accommodate the kids, my studio is now wherever I can find the space. However, I have found that I have been given the opportunity to really know who my children are as adults and it has been a great gift to all of us. If I start to feel the resentment of how hard I had it at their age without parental support, I think of how different the times are now, and how blessed I am to truly get to share time and space with the loves of my life.

I would urge you to consider carefully the use of Mark Steyn 's "deferred
original photograph adulthood." Not because I don't think America/The West and her artists have some growing up to do, but because his view takes a pointed swipe at a population that may be deferring their adulthood for more reasons than selfishness. I am a single woman in her late 30s who made a choice to move back in with my American parents to care for my elderly father. This meant I have deferred marriage and childbearing (are we still insisting on these being adult responsibilities? - Wow) and postponed Graduate School. I have always followed a different path, but I am certain I am not alone in having to make some pretty tough choices. I take offense for myself and for others like me, who are making grown up choices and being taken over the coals by the likes of Mark Steyn . Europeans and Japanese may be living at home longer, perhaps Muslims as well. In America that is a sign of weakness, is it not? I think our day will come when we will have to adjust our priorities, grow up, and hopefully find a way to begin making art work that reflects that. I think Picasso's comment remains just as true today... truth is, I don't think until we've gone through some serious scrapes and bumps do we get to appreciate what it means to be a childlike adult and that, still, takes time.

(RG note) Thanks, Antonia. According to Steyn's book , Europeans and others are staying with mom and dad into their forties. This is having a profound effect on current birthrates. French women, for example, are having 1.89 children per woman, not enough to maintain the population of that country. Japanese women are at 1.32. The five Continental countries (apart from war-torn Bosnia) with the highest birth rates are currently Albania, Macedonia, France, the Netherlands and Denmark, and these happen to be the countries with the highest proportion of Muslim citizens. The USA has a current birth rate of 2.11—enough to grow the population. Canada is looking shy at 1.48. Russia is uninterested in kids at 1.14.

I was wondering if there were any tips and pointers for us younger artists who Garden Gate Number Three
acrylic painting
20 x 16 inches are trying to gain a foothold in this extremely competitive art world. How can we compete with artists who have had years upon years of practicing their art form to perfection? How can we build an art career when all the galleries are filled and are not taking on any new artists? Practice and experience build expertise, but how can we continue when the cost of practicing well surpasses the income generated from the sales and the opportunities for experience are taken by the experts? Sometimes, it just seems easier to stay in bed. In my experience, the art groups are filled with the older generation and I am often the youngest in the bunch. The artists my age have given up and are out in the working world trying to pay the bills with the hopes that one day their art will resurface at retirement. Maybe an art career is only for the older generation? Is there any advice from your experience that you can give to the younger artists to help make the art road that much clearer?

(RG note) Thanks, Rebekah. I'm sorry if my letter seemed pessimistic. Actually, young people make it in the arts every day. The idea is to compress each learning cycle into as short a time period as possible. Grab, process, rethink and rework, and begin to stand on your own shoulders. In my experience, every successful artist, young or old, has at some time realized that the application of private character, often in solitude, is the key to progress, creative growth and acceptance. Every day someone writes to ask me for the "secret." As far as I can see it's, "Go to your room."

While I'm enchanted to see "chutzpah" used in such a scholarly context, I must Sisters
original painting disagree. The face of age is changing, Robert. Gray is becoming a precursor to all the primary colors, not a residue. Look around. From the Eldering work of Rabbi Schachter-Shalom and Ram Dass (both of whom have loads of chutzpah to propel their wisdom) to the recent ascension of Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth to the top of all the best-seller lists (thank you, Oprah), older people are seeking - and finding - new levels of meaning and adventure. My 55-ish friend "R" and her 60-ish husband are off to India in three weeks, and I don't mean the tourist traps. They'll be seeking out the Dalai Lama's residence, the home of poet Tagore and walk in the footsteps of Yogananda. A 56 year old friend is taking a lifetime of making wonderful art and putting herself out there with a show at Omega this Spring. "K" is exploring new careers. "D" in Highlands is just getting started marketing her brilliant nature photography. I'm opening to a spiritual counseling practice after 30 years in the recording business . All of us are exploring new depths career, spirit, discovery and personal metaphor. How gray does that sound? All over the planet, and perhaps most conspicuously in the west, older people are exploding into new beginnings and encounters with life. It does seem almost unprecedented to see this phenomenon moving so widely into what was once a contracting, quieting phase of the life cycle. There are those who say that a spiritual reawakening is upon us because we're so in need of it - when were we not? - and because we're making ourselves ready to receive it. Artists have ever been in the vanguard; the left hemisphere isn't all there is to life, and we're opening wide to the influence of the right. It takes many forms, some old, some young, but wears the face of reverent curiosity. It really is a great time to be gray, Robert, and every other color as well. I think you're a shining example that contradicts the quote above. There's a currently popular mythos that says the Aztec calendar ends in 2012, and a new beginning is in store. Many "gray" folks aren't waiting!

Apparently you missed it. The end of the world as we knew it happened some time
art quilt back. The Piscean Age of self-sacrifice and martyrdom is over - but still dying a slow death. The 2000+ years Aquarian Age - though just in its opening phase - has firmly begun and brings with it all those things like instant worldwide computer connectivity to information that make this twice-weekly letter of yours possible. So, damn - I wish I could just align with what you say here about things but I can't. I graduated from high school in 1971 at the age of 17 and before my 18th birthday had left Utah and run off to Los Angeles - anything to get out of my parent's home and away from a repressive and aggressively destructive religious culture. Though I didn't stay long, when I returned to Utah I immediately moved to Salt Lake City and in the next 20 years didn't set foot in my parent's home again even 5 times. I then moved to Denver and never looked back. This trend of young people continuing to live at home and taking no responsibility for themselves disgusts me totally. Pathetic. On the other hand, I didn't really grow up myself until I was in my mid 30s. Why? Because nobody does - really. You don't grow up UNTIL you've been out of mommy and daddy's house for long enough a time to have had to figure the world out on your own. However, the former rules of marriage and childbearing - with or without college thrown in for both genders - have always been bass-ackwards. People want to have sex - not babies. Sex wasn't culturally acceptable outside marriage. That rule has been permanently altered, hopefully forever, but we still have too many children having children. We just can't seem to figure out how to have universal birth control be the rule of the day - following the very best sex education possible at the youngest possible age to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Stupid religious rules still get in the way.

Regarding the pricing of art and art exhibits in alternative spaces and specifically, Bistango Restaurant Gallery in Irvine, California, I am an art consultant and the owner of StudioGallery in Irvine, California. I have curated art exhibits, primarily in alternative spaces in Southern California, for over two decades. Among my most successful and gratifying undertakings has been to curate four yearly exhibits at Bistango Restaurant Gallery in Irvine for the last 21 years. Each show is comprised of the painting, sculptures and photographs of around 18 artists. This means that I have exhibited thousands of works by more than 1,500 artists at Bistango since 1987. I do not need to point out to you or your knowledgeable readers that there are very few art galleries (or restaurants, for that matter) in Southern California or anywhere else that stay in business this long. Let me state up front that I understand your general reservations to exhibits in alternative spaces, as many of these are not professionally curated nor do they make much of an attempt to meet museum quality standards. I also realize that you reside in Canada, so I will assume that you have never been to Bistango Restaurant Gallery in Irvine, California. If you had, you might have tempered your criticism directed at this establishment. Bistango certainly is a restaurant first and a gallery second. This said, when it was built, the architect designed it to showcase art. Art is the centerpiece at Bistango; it was not added as décor. Your response, sight unseen, lumped Bistango with "barber shops" and "parking lots." I see this as rather unprofessional. I would also add that there are many other art exhibits at alternative venues such as major airports, libraries and other public and corporate buildings that provide excellent exposure to artists and their work, to the delight of many people who might not readily go into a museum or much less to "legitimate" galleries. The sad truth, as many artists have observed in letters to your Web Site, is that a lot of these "legitimate" galleries won't give the time of day to most emerging artists. I also want to go into some details regarding the issue of pricing, which was the other main topic you commented on. Here, you pretty much lump our pricing for exhibits at Bistango with the work of, in your words, "brigands." I most certainly resent being called a "brigand." Again, you did not bother to try and check the details before publishing this opinion. The way I first look at pricing, as you vociferously suggested, is to ask each artist what they expect to get for their work. I endeavor to evaluate with them a fair market price based on many of the criteria you mention such as the artists' curricula, type of work, size and media. The amount that the artist states he or she expects to receive from a sale is "untouchable." So if an artist, as in the case of Kirk Wassell, does not agree with pricing, he certainly should have discussed this up front. The artist has total control over the amount he will receive for any given sale, as you recommend. He does not have control over the cost of doing business. Nor would he at any "legitimate" gallery. Bistango and I have displayed the works of established artists (as famed as Litta Albuquerque, Laddie John Dill, Eric Orr and Richard Diebenkorn, among many others), mid-career artists and emerging artists. They include local Californian artists, American artists as well as artists from many countries in South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. We have always made the greatest effort to treat all artists fairly in every way. I realize that out of more than 1,500 artists we have exhibited, there may be a few that see things in their own way. I conclude, based on your website and what I've heard from many artists who wrote to us, that your basic objective is to help other artists. If you visit my StudioGallery Web Site, you will see that our objectives are very much on the same track. I thank you for providing an open and stimulating forum for everything that has to do with art and artists. I hope to have the pleasure of meeting you for lunch, at Bistango, of course, if you should be in Southern California. I believe you'll approve of the food AND the art.

(RG note) Thanks, Antoinette. We had many responses defending your two restaurants and published a few of them here . Thank you for clarifying and setting me straight. The amount an artist wishes to receive is indeed untouchable in your case, and I appreciate that, but does the final price that collectors will have to pay vary between you and other galleries that some artists may have? This part of your price policy is not clear to me. This worry is coming from artists who may have a stable of galleries and need to see that final prices are the same from city to city. I find all of this is often the artist's fault for not taking control and establishing the final retail price of their art. Many of our subscribers are concerned with both "profiteering" and "discounting"--the twin knives that slice at the perception of an artist's stable price structure and progression. Geographically, the Internet now levels the field with "instant comparison pricing." If you don't respect an artist's retail price, how can an artist build a stable of dealers?

I do at times work in conjunction with other galleries. In this case there is always an agreement to maintain price parity. However, with many emerging artists there frequently is no true "price history." Things can and do get somewhat subjective. I believe that art is pure creativity but, at the time of sale, merges with commerce. There are so many variables, as you and many artists have discussed on your Web Site, that the process is not always scientific. As you recommend, we certainly try to keep an even playing field for all involved, artists, reps, galleries and, of course, buyers. I personally do not always have a failsafe way to verify pricing in others cities or even other countries, and there may be valid reasons for price differences to exist.

Your second point refers to "profiteering" and "discounting." Fortunately, I have hardly ever had to deal with "profiteering." If an individual artist might suggest a price that I believe is out of line or not justified by the criterion you have already mentioned, I will endeavor to counsel him/her accordingly. As to "discounting," while you are obviously correct in pointing out that this works against stable price structures, I find it to be a fact of life. Deals between buyers and sellers are negotiated, much like in any other business. In many, many cases, it comes down to the point that if the artist wants to make the sale, he/she will have to make some concessions. It is market dynamics, but in the end the demand may dictate the price. I guess the famous caveat emptor and caveat vendor apply to the art world as they do to all commercial exchange.
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