Just a Story

First things first. Thank you to all the people who have commented on the curatorial process. You have no idea how many smiles and how many times I've said thank you out loud. Your notes do so much to buoy up my spirits. Again, thank you. Now for the promised story.

Years ago I met a woman named Annie McCandlis. She became a friend. Although we now live on different ends of the country when we meet we pick up where we left off. I have a few good friends in the same category.

One of the things Annie taught me was :
change the rules
change the game
or don't play

The first time I hear that small set of rules was in 1980. I was working in Port Townsend, Washington. It was a different sort of art in those days as I was just a bit younger. I would see Annie here and there. I would complain and Annie would listen. When I complained most bitterly she would remind me of the rules above.

I learned to parrot those lines. I could say them for many years. Slowly, slowly, I began to learn for myself what they truly meant. It's like truth; truth comes one to a customer. Those rules, like truth, mean exactly what one person needs them to mean. Artists all have rules of their own. Annie's rule comes in handy in making career and professional decisions.

Here it is twenty seven years later. I'm learning again, that rules, like truths, are up to each, one person's perception. It's time to begin the spring cleaning of my workroom. Like all house cleaning it works on multiple levels: the physical, the mental, the emotional, the spiritual, the universal. Time again to change the rules.