Is it worth it?  To waste your art on commerce?
Isn’t it better to create from love and live off of
natural instincts?

But making money is what we love.
Eating and paying rent is what we prefer.
That is always the answer.

There is a necessity to place a value on ourselves,
ego-driven and righteous;
silly how we adults play these make-believe games.

Get paid or pay dues?
Which is the choice when you learn
one cannot honor two gods?

Art is personal.
Creation is personal.
Imaginative self-discovery is personal.
Soul exploration is personal.

It is degrading, putting an artificial financial value
on your inspiration
on your life
to seek payment for a gift of expression
you owe to the world;

Money is not a measurement of quality,
it represents the antithesis,
otherwise, the greatest painters, writers, musicians
would have perished in wealth.

This world was created without money;
created for the sake of being created
as an idea for the exchange of ideas,
as a necessity to remain alive;

We have diminished our worth with money.

All we want now is what we should not have
until we get it
until we want more
until we are too numb to want anything anymore

Artistic success is measured by personal standards.
Financial success is measured by the standards of those who pay you.
Have respect and hold yourself to the higher standard.
Nevermind the banks and the bills and the bullshit.
Dare to create, only.
Dare to be an artist, only.
Dare to divorce this common consumption notion of society.
Money reveres trends.
Art is your character, your integrity;
The sum of the natural value of your life.
Separate your art from financial commerce.
Let your roots spread and grow as you are naturally meant to…

 

af

 

(written with pen on paper)