Take A Chance on Art

Lament for Icarus, by Herbert James Draper

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”

― Helen Keller

Artists are adventurers, explorers. No one who creates can be ensured of success, but playing it safe is for accountants, insurance brokers and bankers. Creative folk are of a different breed. They’re built for battle. They take failure in stride. They swim in inspiration and poetry.

Not that failure doesn’t sting. It does, but their love for their metier overrides disappointment. A romantic optimism always takes them for another flight. “This time will be different,” they think. They are eternal optimists.

They would like to avoid danger. Of course they would prefer success, but since it comes so rarely they learn to take temporary setbacks in stride.

As a child I rode horses at breakneck speeds over rough ground, and was bucked off more than once. My brothers often sped across the pastures chasing rabbits in their Model T with me…