SexARTdeathWORKplay

WORK

It only works if you work it. However: the catch for artists is that they must "play" at it in order for it to be truly good. This feels like a contradiction in terms, but contradictions are what creativity is all about, as symbolized by Janus, the two-headed calf of mythology.

It's always been difficult for me to get this across to non-artists. They see my work as "play" because they don't see the blood, sweat and tears that go into every piece I make.  And some of my work is very "easy-come." I just do this, do that, and the best stuff can appear.  But the lead-up to it is living life to the fullest, meaning being emotionally open to everything and everyone around me, and radiating out into the entire planet in that vulnerable way.

Some artists are reclusive, and don't like people. That makes sense.  Their antennae are finely tuned and they pick up on all the "garbage" and the "junk" the world throws out. A confessional artist/writer, I subject myself to intense scrutiny at all times and kind of get a high from it. I'm actually very private, but, like Virginia Woolf, wherever I am people look at me as if to say..."Who...what...is she?" I know this and I use it. I get stories from people. They share themselves with me. Strangers tell me their deepest, most private thoughts and secrets. Maybe that's why I was a successful psychic for so many years. When that became more work than play I had to stop. It was hurting my third eye, which is what also helps me create my art, fiction and poetry. As soon as I stopped doing readings, the art poured out. And keeps pouring.

Now I have to work/play at another kind of work/play: marketing my work/play so that I can make a good living at it. I'm tired of working and playing for free. As fortune-tellers like to say, before we do a reading: "Cross my palm with silver." And frankly, I'm finding that it's not as much hard work as I thought. I'm learn to work smarter and have more fun with it all; doing it my way, or at least the way (always) that She intends.