Home of the Brave, and Creative

Aboriginal Mask, Gold with Red Lips by Maureen Robbins

The is an inherent struggle to be an artist. The term "starving artist" is often joked about and used as a kind of tongue-in-cheek rebuke for creative efforts. There is an overwhelming pressure to be a part of the group. While we think it's cool to be an outsider, it is lonely.  It doesn't really feel cool. Much of the time, artists walk through life wearing a mask of conformance.  As the Japanese saying goes, "Nails that stick up get nailed down."

So why write about this?  When you walk into a shop like ours, or any gallery, you are looking at more that a color scheme to match your walls and carpeting. You are looking at creative work that took courage to produce, and even more courage to sell.  Take a little time and savor the richness of that expression, even if it is completely foreign to you.

I am amazed at the kind of creative courage in the artist's we work with.  Let's hope we can all be as wild.