In for a Penny, In for a Pound!

There is always the question, how much is enough or how much is too much especially in the Indie publishing world.

I can say from experience that nothing is never enough when you are self employed. It is a good many long hours and longer nights! There is also the many sudden glitches and magically make all your work go away and the added pleasure of all the little bugs that come along in most software programs.

So what is enough? Well, I think there has to be a reality check in it all. We all would love to have best selling books and have a lovely soft income coming in, however that isn't always the case! At least not until the research is done and the steps put into place to make that happen.

And what is that other old say?"Time is money". Well, in this day and age it is! There is no way around it. In these crazy times with inflation is spiralling out of control and every day you wonder if you are not going to wake up to a new pandemic, seriously, how can time not be money?

When so many people are looking to just pay their bills and stay afloat, what is really going to help right now what is going on in the world. What is really important?

If you are a Buddhist like myself, then you know you took a vow to do no harm, and if you go one step farther you take a vow to help...so what can one person do in this sea of uncertainty and growing despair for the place the world is in?

Is making more money the answer? I know some very rich and very unhappy people. I know for a fact it isn't the end all and be all to have a lot of money in your bank account. Unless your a sociopath and don't care at whose expense you got that money, in many cases, there are a good many wealthy people who know they don't have clear consciences and have to live with that. Rather them than me.

As an artist, I always used to wonder what was the point of being one? i was born an artist. I didn't really ask to be, it is just where many of my strengths like in the same way someone is really good at math. With this, I have always had a very practical side and wondered what is the point of doing that painting or making that sculpture or carving, or doing that piece of writing? What difference does it make?

As I get older however, I can see the difference it makes. I can look at that painting and be reminded of something or be stirred to feel something. Something that takes me away from the daily grind. I may be living in a bloody apartment (something I never did until very recently) and even though I am surrounded by concrete, I can look at that painting and be transported to a beautiful place that I may or may not have visited. In the same way, I know a really good book can take you away and transport you to somewhere else and right now, I think a lot of people are looking for that cheap virtual reality fix!

There is also the investment value. They say put your money in gold (and if you look at the value of some coins being minted right now), you know folks are taking it seriously! I also know someone who put two buckets in the ground equally over 3/4 of a million dollars and it disappeared! I also know my elderly widowed uncle like all those on his side, lived through the depression and had a secret stash that went missing around the same time his neighbour who helped him out, bought a new truck with cash! So seriously, it isn't as easy as you think to keep money safe.

So seriously, what is the one thing that has always been associated with the part of humanity that separates us from the apes?

Our art. Did VanGogh think his paintings would sell for as much as they do or be on display somewhere? He may have hoped, however I think by the time the lead paint and the alcohol got to him he really didn't care. My point is however, smart investors invest in two things besides gold: real estate (after all it is called REAL estate for a reason, they are not making any more of it!!!) and art.

Any investment is a gamble, however investing in artists is possibly the easy investment to make. Property has to be improved or at least maintained to increase in value unless you hold onto it for a while, gold, well that is always a risk to keep safe, however art is the easiest to manipulate.

Do you think some of the great writers and painters and sculptors out there now just became famous? No, of course not. As someone who worked for a leading Inuit Art dealer first as her employee in her top Inuit Art Gallery (her and James her husband literally started the Inuit Art Movement!), I know that artists are not made, but their reputation and popularity are!

Alma Houston took more than one artist, worked promoting and selling not the artist's art, but the artist and made them. I loved going around visiting artists with her because she was passionate and cared about the artist she supported in her gallery. It wasn't a display case, it was a show case, two very different things.

So in thinking about it, no matter how I look at it, in these difficult times, we need artists, we need hope, we need new ideas and passion for something more than survival. Artists can be the canary in the coal mine; they often bring into focus things that need to be seen. That is the creative way. There is no way around it.  Inspiration comes from something so universal and at the same time so archaic that we, as human beings can try, but never really deny it.

So what is enough as an artist? Frankly, whatever you do is enough while at the same time, not enough. All you writers and poets and artists out there NEED to be here and are always going to be needed! We are what keeps humanity human.